The Russellville Historic District [†] includes a large portion of the late 18th-century and the 19th-century sections of the town. The boundaries have been chosen to include as wide a range of structures, functions, and types as possible. The boundaries exclude modern subdivisions on the west and south; deteriorated housing of little antiquity or significance on the east and some on the north. The area along the railroad line north of the courthouse retains little or no historic character and much of an intrusive nature: modern highways with concomitant strip development enter the town center at the northwest corner of the grid system.
Although internally diversified, the area within the boundaries proposed has a more or less continuous identity and remarkably few intrusions. Most modern construction has been at least compatible in scale, material, and style. There have been a few outstanding restorations and a great deal of preservation through survival and adaptation.
Unusually for a Kentucky county seat, the core of the town is not the present courthouse which lies along the north side of the main east-west thoroughfare, Fourth Street but the commercial square that spans Fourth Street a block east of the courthouse forming a long north-south rectangle with Main Street along its east side. This attractive square, the site of the original courthouse, with its fountain and memorials, forms the main intersection of the town and fulfills the usual role of the courthouse square. Mostly Victorian commercial buildings line Main Street north of the square and a block south to the old Long Bank Building, a combination residence-bank that formed an appropriate transition from the commercial center to the residential area beyond. Other commercial structures surround the square*,,extending west past the courthouse and some distance along Second and Third streets flanking North Main.
The original settlement of Russellville tended to be in the northeast quadrant of the present city, because of early industries along Muddy Creek below Maulding's Hill. The oldest surviving part of the town is in the area several blocks east of Main Street near the meandering Town Branch. This area has been subject to flooding, and has historically had a small scale of construction. Much of the brick and frame housing stock is physically deteriorated, but the earlier dwellings have a remarkable rate of survival in this area, which is traditionally divided into sections known locally as White Bottom and Black Bottom (south of Fourth Street). The Town Branch itself has considerable charm, being at some places lined with old stone walls. The old town cemetery forms the northeast terminus of this quadrant.
The history of Russellville has been embodied in numerous surviving structures: a few of them of outstanding architectural significance, a considerable number of intrinsic interest, and many with character. Of the earliest log structures, few are known to survive, although fragments are said to be embedded in several later buildings (see #24 and #43, Photos 30, 30A and 56; and photo 26A). The Reverend James McGready House referred to above, now on the outskirts of town but once fairly remote, is a superb example of stone construction from before 1800, but none is known to survive.
† Mary Cronan, Historian; Walter E. Langsam, Architectural Historian, Kentucky Heritage Commission, Russellville istoric District, 1976, nomination document, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, DC.
Street Names
2nd Street • 3rd Street • 4th Street • 5th Street • 6th Street • 7th Street • 8th Street • 9th Street • Breathitt Street • Caldwell Street • Main Street North • Nashville Street • Spring Street • Summer Street • Wade Street • Winter Street