Denison Commercial Historic District

Downtown Denison, Texas, is a commercial district of 135 buildings along Woodard, Main and Chestnut Streets, with about 37 of them more than a century old. Denison began in 1872 as a planned town tied to the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad and soon became a transportation and supply center for north Texas and southern Oklahoma. The original plan produced a rigid street grid, unusually broad rights-of-way on Main and Woodard, and narrow 25-foot lots meant to encourage retail use. About ninety percent of the buildings are two-story brick structures built to the property line, mostly vernacular but showing Italianate, Romanesque, Classic Revival and Beaux Arts influences. Railroad structures cluster at the east end, led by the Beaux Arts passenger station built in 1909-11 for $250,000. Also noted are a 1914 railroad underpass, an early ice plant and warehouses. Many downtown stores had rented rooms upstairs for railroad travelers and workers. Some buildings have been altered with aluminum siding and rebuilt storefronts.