Market House Square District
Why it's listed
Eleven structures surround Market House Square in downtown Fayetteville, the focal point being the brick Market House of the 1830s, modeled on an eighteenth century English town hall with an open arcade, a cupola and a low dome. The remaining ten buildings were erected between about 1884 and 1926 and show a range of styles across a single commercial block. Twin Italianate storefronts at 106 and 108 Person Street have metal window heads and a shared bracketed cornice. The Sedberry-MacKethan Drugstore, a three-story building with a bell-cast mansard roof, is in the Second Empire style. The Knights of Pythias hall of about 1893 is in the Norman Revival style, and the Stein-Lawyer's Building of about 1916 has Mediterranean Revival features. The ten-story First Citizen's Bank Building, opened in 1926, is Neo-Classical and was the tallest building in the city for many years. The group records how Fayetteville's commercial center grew and changed.
Significance in brief: The district illustrates the commercial development of Fayetteville's downtown from the late eighteenth century onward and contains a sampling of late nineteenth and early twentieth century commercial architecture, from Italianate and Second Empire storefronts to a Norman Revival fraternal hall, a Mediterranean Revival office building, and a Neo-Classical bank tower. The Market House, a National Historic Landmark, anchors the group.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 83001860, listed July 7, 1983. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-haiku-5-5, prompt v1.1-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | Hay, Person, Green, and Gillespie Sts., Fayetteville |
|---|---|
| County | Cumberland County |
| Listed | July 7, 1983 |
| Reference number | 83001860 |
| Resource type | District |
| Architect / builder | Charles C. Hartmann (architect of the First Citizen's Bank Building); the Market House architect is unknown |
| Architectural style | Italianate, Second Empire, Late Victorian revival, Norman Revival, Mediterranean Revival, Neo-Classical Revival |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Commerce, Architecture |
| Level of significance | National |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | All but one or two of the structures are currently in use; the Hay Street building at 103 is vacant at present, and offices in the Stein-Lawyer's Building are described as mostly vacant. |
| Acreage | 4.9 |
| Within district | Fayetteville Downtown Historic District |
| Coordinates | 35.05262, -78.87854 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 83001860.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q18216964
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.