Altavista Downtown Historic District

Altavista's downtown district covers about 14 acres of the original commercial and governmental center of a town planned in the early twentieth century. The Lane Brothers Construction Company bought land near the meeting of the Southern and Virginian railways in 1905, and the town plat was approved in 1908. That grid of streets, lots and alleys still defines the district. Most of its 48 contributing buildings are one- or two-story masonry commercial blocks with brick facades, storefronts with plate glass, pressed metal cornices and decorative brickwork. Notable buildings include the 1909 Ogden-Henderson Building, the First National Bank designed by Stanhope Johnson, the 1938 Colonial Revival town hall by Samuel P. Craighill, a 1938 post office, two churches from the 1920s, and the railroad depots and service stations. The district is significant as the intact core of a planned industrial town where zoning kept commerce between the rail lines and factories on the east side.