Petersburg Old Town Historic District (Boundary Increase II)

Fifteen buildings and structures at the eastern edge of Petersburg's Old Town make up this boundary increase, which runs between the Norfolk & Western rail line, East Bank Street and Interstate 95. Until the early twentieth century the land held working-class housing and food storage warehouses, including several peanut facilities. The houses are gone, but two brick warehouses, at 409 Fifth Street (about 1914) and 427 Bollingbrook Street (about 1935), survive with their brick detailing and painted business signs. Most other buildings are one-story concrete block shops and warehouses from the 1940s and 1950s, with overhead track doors, loading docks and metal-sash windows. A former service station at 203 Henry Street dates to the 1920s. Together they show the move from residential and commodity-processing uses to light industry and commerce. Completion of Interstate 95 in 1958 stopped new development and fixed the eastern edge of historic downtown. The area was added to the district for its architecture, commerce and industry, with a period of significance of 1914 to 1958.