Bristol Commercial Historic District

Downtown Bristol, which sits on the Tennessee-Virginia line, is a 23-acre commercial district built mostly between about 1885 and 1952. Its oldest surviving buildings, from the 1890s, are Italianate brick blocks along State Street. A building boom between 1900 and 1930 produced most of what stands today: the Beaux-Arts First National Bank, the H.P. King Department Store, the seven-story Reynolds Arcade, and many one- to four-story brick storefronts. Warehouses, a flour mill and clothing factories show the city's industrial side, while garages reflect the arrival of the automobile. The 1930s and 1940s added the Art Deco Paramount Theatre, Art Moderne storefronts of Carrara glass and aluminum, and the Central Building. Local architect Clarence B. Kearfott designed several of the district's major buildings. The district was listed for its role in the city's commercial and industrial development and for its range of early twentieth-century architectural styles.