Harrisonburg Downtown Historic District

Harrisonburg's downtown core is a district of about 100 acres along Main and Liberty streets, laid out when the city was established in 1779-80 as the seat of Rockingham County. Court Square and the county courthouse anchor a dense midsection of commercial buildings, mostly from the 1870s through the 1950s. North of the square, warehouses, a roller mill and railway buildings cluster near West Gay Street and Chesapeake Avenue, while South Main and South Liberty streets are largely residential, with some dwellings now used as offices. Notable resources include the 18th-century Thomas Harrison House, a limestone dwelling described as the oldest house in the city; the 1913 Chesapeake Western Railway Station; the Rockingham Milling Company complex of the 1920s; and the former Harrisonburg High School, whose 1908 Classical Revival section was designed by Charles Morrison Robinson. Of 215 resources, 167 contribute to the district's historic character during its 1779-1955 period of significance.