Rochester Downtown Historic District

About this property

The Rochester Downtown Historic District is a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in Rochester, Indiana, United States. It was placed on the Register on June 24, 2008. The majority of buildings in the area are masonry and Italianate while structures outside the district are largely residential frame built structures. Rochester was founded as a trading post in 1831 between the European settlers and local Native Americans, along the old Michigan Road where it intersected Mill Creek. Most of the contributing buildings lie along the old Michigan Road, now Main Street, in a right-of-way pattern (the newer, non-contributing buildings do not follow this pattern). Alexander Chamberlain built the first tavern-hotel in Rochester in 1835, the same year, he and Lot Bozarth filed a plat for the town of Rochester. In 1836, Cyrus Taber with William and George Ewing expanded the original plat south one block to include what is now the courthouse square. The first courthouse was built of wood in 1837 along with a jail. Rochester's location on the Michigan Road contributed to continued growth. By 1840, there were several three story buildings and 300 residents. The current courthouse was built in 1895-1896 and the old jail replaced in 1851. The Indianapolis, Peru and Chicago Railroad arrived in 1869, and brick became the norm for commercial construction. Prominent buildings in the district include the Fulton County Courthouse (which is a Richardsonian Romanesque building also NRHP-listed), a water tower, Rochester City Hall & Fire Department, post office, and telephone company. The limestone courthouse, which was already on the National Register as of September 22, 2000, is located on Ninth Street. Four different memorials are on its grounds: one for the Pottawatomies' Trail of Death, a cornerstone for the Rochester College, and two war memorials. Although most of the buildings in the district are constructed of brick, after the construction of the courthouse, with its rusticated limestone construction, it is believed that other buildings were renovated to match the courthouse using faux stone that was cemented to their brick structures; the Masonic Temple is reflective of this. Limestone is also used on the name blocks of buildings. The historic fire department has an engraved limestone name block above its door. The city hall not only has a similar limestone name block, but the right and left bays of the hall have limestone diamonds above them.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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