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Center City Historic District is a grouping of 19 homes and one church located along the east side of Summit Avenue situated on a hill overlooking North Center Lake in 
Center City, Minnesota
Center City is a city and the county seat of Chisago County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 628 at the 2010 census.
U.S. Highway 8 serves as a main route.
History
Center City was platted in 1857, and named from its location ne ...
, United States. It was listed as a historic district
A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...
on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1980. Center City became the county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...
of Chisago County in the 1870s, during a time of Swedish migration and settlement in the county. The buildings in the historic district include the Chisago Lake Evangelical Lutheran Church, which was the main Swedish Lutheran parish in the area, as well as a number of residences built between 1888 and 1910. The homes have moderate ornamentation and attention to architectural styling details of their period.
The Center City Historic District is significant as a link to the Swedish Lutheran population of the Chisago Lakes region during the area's most important period of development and as the county's finest concentration of late nineteenth and early twentieth century residences. When the railroad arrived in the Chisago Lakes region in 1881, the area witnessed significant growth. The residences within the Center City Historic District, housed merchants, tradesmen, professionals, politicians, and retired farmers. They are reflective of the growing prosperity of the region.
The Chisago Lake Evangelical Lutheran Church is the second-oldest Lutheran congregation in Minnesota. It was founded in 1854 by Eric Norelius
Eric Norelius (26 October 1833 – 15 March 1916) was a Swedish-American Lutheran minister, church leader, and author.
Background
Eric Norelius was born on 26 October 1833 in Norrbäck, Hassela parish, Sweden. He received his early educa ...
, who founded several other Lutheran churches in Minnesota. Norelius was a divinity student and served for three months before returning to the seminary. A permanent pastor arrived in 1855, and a wood-frame church was built in 1856. A brick church was built in 1881–1883, but it was struck by lightning and burned in 1888. The congregation rebuilt the church immediately, using the masonry contractors as before. The bell was installed in the steeple in 1890, and a clock was installed in 1907.
References
{{National Register of Historic Places Geography of Chisago County, Minnesota Queen Anne architecture in Minnesota Romanesque Revival architecture in Minnesota Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Chisago County, Minnesota