Narrative Description

The boundary expansion of the Elizabeth City Historic District, hereinafter referred to simply as the expansion area, is located within the municipal limits of Elizabeth City and is situated west of the original 1793 limits of the town. It primarily enlarges the West Main Street arm of the existing Elizabeth City Historic District (NR 1977) by adding residential areas to the north, south, and west. The expansion area is generally bounded on the north by Cedar Street, on the south by West Grice street, on the east by Elliott Street, and on the west by Ashe Street. While land use within this area before 1891 was largely agricultural, during the 1850s there was a small community of free blacks along what is now Culpepper Street in the southeastern edge of the expansion area. This community focused on the city's only antebellum black church, now Mount Lebanon A. M. E. Zion Church (#365). While no buildings from this antebellum community survive, their late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century replacements perpetuate the neighborhood's tradition of being a small enclave of black residents at the edge of overwhelmingly white residential areas.

The expansion area contains representative examples of Greek Revival, Queen Anne, Eastlake, Craftsman Bungalow, Colonial Revival, and Tudor Revival styles, in addition to numerous dwellings that follow traditional forms and are usually decorated with Victorian millwork. The many outbuildings within the expansion area are primarily garages and storage buildings. Non-residential buildings include two churches, two commercial buildings, and several former neighborhood groceries. Unless otherwise noted, all buildings are of frame construction and continue in their original use. The expansion area contains 424 contributing and 193 noncontributing resources. Of the 425 primary resources, 318, or 75 percent, are contributing, and 107, or 25 percent, are noncontributing.

The expansion area encompasses a grid of streets that form an orderly pattern of blocks of irregular size. The major streets--Cedar, West Colonial, West Main, and West Church--extend along a fairly true east-west axis. While lots vary in depth from 72 to 221 feet, lots are usually 50 or 60 feet wide, providing a fairly regular rhythm along the street. Yards are usually small in front and deep at the rear. Along many sections of the primary streets, large dogwoods planted between sidewalk and curb provide a handsome bower of spring flowers, summer foliage, and fall color. These dogwoods accent numerous foundation plantings and small side gardens, some of which are delineated by attractive picket fences. Mature shade trees provide varying amounts of shade to lots throuqhout the expansion area and are usually located at the rear of the residence.

The expansion area to the Elizabeth City Historic District retains an unusually high degree of architectural integrity. Since the 1940s some buildings have been given replacement siding or porch posts, most in a manner that allows the original form, character, and detailing to remain, so that the building's contributing status is preserved. Buildings on which replacement siding is teamed with major porch changes and/or replacement windows in a manner that obscures the original character, are classified as noncontributing. Fortunately, only 24 of the 425 primary buildings, or six percent, have been altered to a noncontributing status. An additional 82 primary buildings, or nineteen percent, are noncontributing because they were erected within the last fifty years. Some of these, such as the houses at 911, 913, 915, and 1001 West Main Street (#s 156, 157, 158, 159), are repetitive one-story dwellings erected before the mid 1950s with simple Colonial Revival style elements that continue the expansion area's building traditions of the 1930s, the last full decade of the area's historical significance.