South Main Street Historic District
Why it's listed
This stretch of South Main Street on Fort Worth's Southside, a few blocks below downtown, preserves eight commercial buildings from 1909 to 1946 and three tiled curb markers from about 1930. The buildings are one-part and two-part commercial blocks of brick, clay tile or reinforced concrete. The earliest three, the Sawyer, Joyslin and Gorrell buildings, were put up in the months after the Great Southside Fire of April 1909. They have corbelled brick parapets and segmental arched windows, and their upper floors held hotel rooms or apartments over street-level shops. Later additions include a 1920s garage, a 1940-41 Safeway store with Art Deco or Moderne touches, a planing mill and a 1946 building from the early postwar years. The district was recognized for architecture because it shows the commercial block form changing over several decades, and because it holds the most intact block faces on South Main Street. Recent rehabilitations of two buildings have added apartments and renewed activity.
Significance in brief: The district is nominated at the local level under Criterion C for architecture, as a small group of one-part and two-part commercial blocks. The buildings show how this commercial form changed from the first decade of the 20th century to the World War II era. It contains the most intact block faces on South Main Street, and three of its earliest buildings went up after the Great Southside Fire of April 3, 1909.
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 09000984, listed December 3, 2009. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | 104, 108, 126 & 200 blocks S. Main St., Fort Worth |
|---|---|
| County | Tarrant County |
| Listed | December 3, 2009 |
| Reference number | 09000984 |
| Resource type | District |
| Period of significance | 1909-46 |
| Architectural style | One-part and two-part Commercial Block; Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements: Commercial Style |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Mixed use. Two buildings were rehabilitated in 2007-09 and now hold apartments upstairs. Other buildings house offices, a day labor center and a manufacturer's offices. The major ground-floor retail spaces in the Sawyer Building are vacant, and the Safeway building's display windows are boarded over. |
| Acreage | 2.5 |
| Coordinates | 32.74434, -97.32635 (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 09000984.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikidata Q109999848
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.