Bristol Commercial Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Downtown Bristol, which straddles the Tennessee-Virginia line, is documented here as a commercial and industrial district centered on State Street. After the Civil War the town grew around its railroad, and by 1900 many frame stores were being replaced by two- and three-story brick buildings. Between 1900 and 1930 a building boom produced most of the surviving downtown, including Beaux-Arts banks and a post office, department stores, Brick Front shops, garages, warehouses and a seven-story office building, the Reynolds Arcade of 1925. Architect Clarence B. Kearfott designed many of these buildings. Later additions include the Art Deco Paramount Theatre of 1930 and Art Moderne storefronts and a furniture store from the late 1930s. Building slowed during the Depression and World War II, then resumed in the 1940s. The district is recognized for its role as a regional commercial center and for its range of commercial architecture from about 1885 to 1952. Many buildings still serve business uses today.