Fifth Avenue Historic District

Fifth Avenue in Kenbridge, Virginia, is lined with the town's earliest and largest houses, built between about 1890 and 1930 for local leaders. The historic district runs five blocks between Broad and Maple streets, with houses set back on broad lawns with mature trees. It has sixty-three contributing buildings, nine non-contributing buildings and four non-contributing structures. The area developed after the Virginian Railroad reached the community in 1906 and the town was incorporated in 1908, when lots were sold along newly platted streets. Queen Anne houses, some with sawn ornament and others with classical details, came first. Transitional Queen Anne and Colonial Revival homes followed, then frame and brick Colonial Revival houses, two American Foursquares and several Bungalow/Craftsman dwellings. Non-residential buildings include a funeral home, a former hospital converted to a house, a physician's office and a 1948 Baptist church. Together they record the growth of a railroad town and the taste of its prosperous residents.