North Manchester Historic District is a national

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 ...

located at

North Manchester North Manchester was, from 1896 to 1916, a township within the Poor Law Union of Manchester, England. North Manchester was a local government sub-district used for the administration of Poor Law legislation; it was an inter-parish unit for soci ...

Wabash County, Indiana Wabash County is a county located in the northern central part of the U.S. state of Indiana. As of 2020, the population was 30,976. The county seat is Wabash. History The area was inhabited for thousands of years by cultures of indigenous pe ...

. It encompasses 159 contributing buildings in the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

and surrounding residential sections of North Manchester. It developed between about 1870 and 1938, and includes representative examples of

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

, Queen Anne, and

Bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as a b ...

American Craftsman American Craftsman is an American domestic architectural style, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which included interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. Its ...

style architecture. Located in the district are the separately listed

Lentz House (Hotel Sheller) Lentz House (Hotel Sheller) is a historic hotel located at North Manchester, Wabash County, Indiana. It was built in 1881, and is a -story, rectangular, Second Empire style brick building. The third story was added in 1896 and attached to the main ...

, Noftzger-Adams House, and North Manchester Public Library. Other notable buildings include the John Lavey House (1874), Horace Winton House (c. 1875), Agricultural Block (1886), Moose Lodge (1886), North Manchester City Hall, Masonic Hall (1907), Zion Lutheran Church (1882), and North Manchester Post Office (1935). ''Note:'' This includes ,
Site map
and Accompanying photographs It was listed 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 2002.

Contributing

John Lavey House, 108 South Elm Street The Lavey House was completed in 1874 It is an

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

. The two-story red brick residence has three bays. The entry to the house is through the right (north) bay. The house has wide eaves under a hipped roof. Window sit on a stone sill, under a brick lintel with wooden shutters. A wrought iron railings surrounds the exterior at the base of the first-floor windows. The front portico has stone steps and deck, topped by two wooden columns covered by a flat roof. The front door is flanked by two pilasters. A wrought iron railing follows the perimeter of the roof.Warner, John, Weintraut & Associates; North Manchester Historic District; National Register of Historic Places Registration Form; United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service; Washington, D.C.; June 27, 2002 Horace Winton House, 202 North Market Street The Horace Winton House, was built around 1875, has dominant architectural elements from two styles, Italianate, and Queen Anne. The asymmetrical plan is typical of Italianate and includes its red brick exterior walls, tall, rectangular, and narrow window openings, its wide eaves, and its hipped roof. Full height, three-sided bays grace both the east and west facades. The large, one-story porch wraps the front and east facades. Agricultural Block, 224-226 East Main Street The Agricultural Block is a commercial Italianate style completed in 1886. The storefront remains intact. The building is constructed of brick, painted now, and has two-stories. Commercial space is at ground level and second floor has living space. The second-floor windows have sills of stone, and the lintels are obscured by flat hooded crowns with square corners that are detailed with a decorative escutcheon in the keystone position. The building is capped with an elaborate entablature consisting of a narrow frieze, brackets, and a projecting cornice. The spaces between the brackets are decorated with painted floral detailing. On the right half of the building cap is a raised portion of the cornice that creates a flat surface upon which is inscribed "Agricultural Block 1886.". Moose Lodge, 205-207 East Main Street The

Moose Lodge The Loyal Order of Moose is a fraternal and service organization founded in 1888 and headquartered in Mooseheart, Illinois. Moose International supports the operation of Mooseheart Child City & School, a community for children and teen ...

is an Italianate commercial building completed in 1886. It has been altered at street level but retains its original styling in good condition on the upper story. Before the Moose Lodge, the building housed a local G.A.R. Post 199 in its upper floor. The storefront has been remodeled. Above the altered portion of the front facade are six rectangular, flat-topped window openings that are crowned with elaborate bracketed hoods. The building is capped with an ornate entablature consisting of a bracketed frieze and a dominant projecting cornice. The peak of the gable is capped with an ornate finial. The storefronts have been altered so they no longer possess any architectural significance. North Manchester City Hall, 101-103 East Main Street City Hall is a two-story, five bay brick building. At street level there are three entries evenly distributed. The large window openings at street level are detailed with limestone blocks both sides and a limestone keystone. Above the central door is a limestone tablet inscribed "City Hall." The left and right entry door openings are square with an arched transom over a canopy. The first and second floors are separated by a limestone belt course. The second floor has five windows. Above the windows is a projecting limestone cornice and a limestone belt course. The building is topped with a low brick parapet. Masonic Hall, 104-106 North Walnut Street The

Masonic Hall A Masonic Temple or Masonic Hall is, within Freemasonry, the room or edifice where a Masonic Lodge meets. Masonic Temple may also refer to an abstract spiritual goal and the conceptual ritualistic space of a meeting. Development and history In ...

was completed in 1907. It is a three-story red brick building in two bays. At street level, each by is a storefront and the in the second and third story have window openings. The street level storefronts have between them an entry door to a central staircase. Brick pilasters rise between bays, capped with limestone capitals. A limestone belt course links the capitals separating the first and second floors. The window openings in the second story are organized in groups of three in each bay with limestone sills and prominent limestone lintels with angle-cut ends. The third story has two window openings on either side of a decorative framing of the Masonic Lodge emblem. Below the emblem is the date "1907." The brick parapet consists of a flat limestone-capped sections on either side of the gable end in the center. Zion Lutheran Church, 113 East Main Street The Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized in 1846 during an increase in German immigration. The present Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church is a Gothic-style structure built in 1882. In 1900, the art glass windows replaced the original windows. Dr. Lloyd Douglas who wrote

The Robe ''The Robe'' is a 1942 historical novel about the Crucifixion of Jesus, written by Lloyd C. Douglas. The book was one of the best-selling titles of the 1940s. It entered the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list in October 1942, four weeks late ...

. He preached here from 1903 to 1905. North Manchester Post Office, 202 East Second Street The North Manchester Post Office was completed in 1935 in a style typical of many

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA) post offices. There is a mural on the wall titled "''Indiana Farm-Sunday Afternoon''". It was completed by artist Alan Tompkins for $540.00 and finished in June 1938. The building is one-story, Neo-Classical brick with five bays. Each bay has a single window opening, with the central bay having the front entrance. The corners are decorated with limestone

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...

, rising through the cornice to the stone-capped parapet Each window is topped with a decorative limestone plaque. The entry is up a set of limestone steps with wrought iron side railings. The door is surrounded by two flat limestone pilasters supporting a plain frieze, and broken pediment.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Indiana Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Indiana Italianate architecture in Indiana Queen Anne architecture in Indiana Greek Revival architecture in Indiana Gothic Revival architecture in Indiana Bungalow architecture in Indiana Historic districts in Wabash County, Indiana National Register of Historic Places in Wabash County, Indiana