Manassas Historic District

Downtown Manassas and its surrounding neighborhoods form a historic district that preserves the look of a small turn-of-the-century railroad town. The commercial core around Center, Main, Church and Battle streets contains brick buildings in Renaissance Revival and Colonial Revival styles, many rebuilt after a fire in 1905 destroyed the central business block. New town rules then required brick, stone or concrete construction. Landmarks include the 1894 Prince William County Courthouse in Victorian Romanesque style, the 1914 railroad station, the 1915 Town Hall and an 1875 sandstone church. Residential streets hold Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival and Craftsman houses, along with modest I houses, gabled ells and foursquares. Local architect Albert Speiden and the Cannon family of builders shaped much of the district. The town was laid out in 1865 after Civil War destruction, so no buildings from the war era remain, though many later structures have survived.