Rocky Mount Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Orchard Avenue is a residential street behind the Franklin County courthouse and downtown Rocky Mount, Virginia. Its northern two blocks, running south from East Court Street to Patterson Street, were added to the existing historic district as a boundary increase. All resources are domestic: single-family houses and associated outbuildings. Most were built in the 1920s and 1930s, and the area served as a convenient neighborhood for prominent townspeople of that era. The street shows a wide mix of styles, including Craftsman bungalows, which are the most common, along with American Foursquare houses, two Victorian-era dwellings, and examples of Tudor Revival, Colonial Revival, National Folk and massed-plan houses. Brick is the favored facing for many bungalows and Foursquares. All but two of the houses date to 1950 or earlier, and most are owner-occupied and well maintained. The inventory counts 35 contributing and 11 noncontributing buildings. Resources were judged by their architectural integrity and by the district's 1820 to 1949 period.