Uniontown Downtown Historic District
Why it's listed
Uniontown's downtown historic district occupies the core of the city's old commercial area in southwestern Pennsylvania, with about 133 buildings along Main, Morgantown and Gallatin streets. The earliest surviving buildings date from the National Road period between 1811 and 1860, when the road brought stagecoach traffic and taverns to the town. A boom in coal and coke from about 1880 produced most of the district's ornate commercial, banking and public buildings. The eleven-story Fayette Bank Building, completed in 1902 by Daniel H. Burnham and Company for coal land speculator J. V. Thompson, uses a steel frame and a circular banking corner. The Fayette County Courthouse, finished in 1892 in Richardsonian Romanesque style by Edward M. Butz and William Kaufmann, has a 188-foot clock tower and gray sandstone walls. The district is listed for its architecture and for its ties to transportation and the county's mining economy.
Significance in brief: The district is significant for its record of the National Road era and the coal and coke boom that followed, when Uniontown served as the financial and mercantile center of the county's coal industry. Its architecture ranges from Federal-style buildings of the early 1800s to ornate Renaissance Revival and Neo-Classical Revival commercial and public buildings of 1880 to 1932. The nomination also cites the Fayette County Courthouse and the Fayette Bank Building as the district's most important individual examples.
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 89000357, listed May 19, 1989. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-haiku-5-5, prompt v1.1-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | Roughly Main St., between Court St. and Mill St., Uniontown |
|---|---|
| County | Fayette County |
| Listed | May 19, 1989 |
| Reference number | 89000357 |
| Resource type | District |
| Period of significance | 1811-1939 |
| Architect / builder | Daniel H. Burnham and Company (Fayette Bank Building); Edward M. Butz and William Kaufmann (Fayette County Courthouse) |
| Architectural style | Renaissance Revival, Neo-Classical Revival, Federal, Romanesque, Queen Anne |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Commerce, Transportation, Politics/Government, Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Fayette Bank Building and other buildings described; the Federal Building is in use for Social Security and postal offices; the State Music Hall is used periodically for stage productions. |
| Acreage | 31 |
| Coordinates | 39.90120, -79.72572 (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 89000357.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q7886851
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.