Charleroi Historic District
Why it's listed
Charleroi's historic district covers about 80 percent of the borough, laid out in 1890 on a generally orthogonal street grid that climbs from the riverside flats to a steep hillside west of the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks. Most of its roughly 1,693 contributing buildings date from 1890 to World War I. They include small two-story frame houses, many of them front-gabled, and brick storefronts with pressed metal cornices. The core business area follows about five blocks of McKean and Fallowfield Avenues between Third and Seventh Streets. Larger Classical Revival and Colonial Revival buildings from 1917 to 1927 anchor the business district. The district is significant for architecture, reflecting the Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles in scaled-down form, and for commerce and community planning. Charleroi grew from a speculative real estate venture, founded in 1890, into the main retail and wholesale center of the Middle Monongahela Valley.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues the district is significant for its architecture, with two generations of buildings from 1890 to 1915 and from 1917 to 1930, and for its role in commerce and community planning. Charleroi was launched as a speculative real estate and industrial town in 1890 and grew into the retail and wholesale center of the Middle Monongahela Valley. The document regards the district as an extensive concentration of small houses and storefronts, with larger Classical Revival buildings added later.
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 07001162, listed November 9, 2007. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-haiku-5-5, prompt v1.1-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | Roughly bounded by 1st & 13th Sts., Oakland Ave. & Pennsylvania RR tracks., Charleroi Borough |
|---|---|
| County | Washington County |
| Listed | November 9, 2007 |
| Reference number | 07001162 |
| Resource type | District |
| Period of significance | 1890-1957 |
| Architectural style | Queen Anne; Colonial Revival; Classical Revival; Gothic Revival; Greek Revival; Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Architecture, Commerce, Community Planning and Development |
| Level of significance | State |
| Acreage | 410 |
| Coordinates | 40.13998, -79.90119 (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 07001162.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q5074687
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.