Union City's Early Historic Architecture

Union City's Early Historic Architecture. . , North Main Street has been Union City's commercial hub throughout its history, and its architecture was a significant contributing factor to the inclusion of the Union City Borough Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. The Historic District is comprised of the Main Street business district and a residential area to the west, including much of West High Street, South Street and the Avenues, primarily erected between 1865 and 1925. The District contains a wide sampling of late 19th century eclectic and early 20th century revival styles.

The majority of the downtown's historic buildings are 2-3 stories in height, of brick construction, and feature the two-part "commercial block" configuration common on small-town main streets during the mid to late 19th century. The two-part commercial block building was an outgrowth of the "shop-house" building of an earlier period, and displays a distinct division between the first floor that was used for public/commercial space, and the upper floor that was devoted to more private functions.

The architecture of two buildings across Main Street is more exotic. Just to the left of this location is the ca. 1880 building at 39 N. Main St., with its Victorian influences that include the dentiled cornice at the roof line, window eyebrows in decorative stone, and dentiled string course between the first and second story. The other example, to the right of this location on the corner of Main and Market streets, is the 1889 I.O.O.F. (Independent Order of Odd Fellows) building with its scalloped cornice of stamped metal and parapet above.

A past building of significance was the Cooper Opera House, which opened in 1873 on the northeast corner of the Main Street-High Street intersection. Road shows, and later silent motion pictures, were enjoyed in the opulent structure until it was razed in the early 1920s. At various times during its existence, a large phonograph was placed on the upper front balcony to furnish music each night, and a platform on the Main Street side of the building allowed the local Coleman Band to play for the community each Thursday night.

[panoramic photo caption] , This wonderful early 1900s panoramic image of Union City's downtown was taken from across the intersection to your right. The former Home National Bank is shown on the immediate right across Crooked (now market) Street, while Main Street stretches to the left and right. The panorama makes the bend in Main Street at the intersection appear much greater than it actually is. You are standing approximately at the former site of J. W. Wellmon Groceries, shown with the sidewalk canopy behind the two horse-drawn delivery wagons.