United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 Buena Vista Historic District Campbell County, KY Name of Property County and State ______________________________________________________________________________ 4. National Park Service Certification I hereby certify that this property is: entered in the National Register determined eligible for the National Register determined not eligible for the National Register removed from the National Register other (explain:) _____________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Signature of the Keeper Date of Action ____________________________________________________________________________ 5. Classification Ownership of Property Private: X Public – Local Xx Public – State Public – Federal Sections 1-6 page 2 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 Buena Vista Historic District Campbell County, KY Name of Property County and State Category of Property Building(s) District x Site Structure Object Number of Resources within Property Contributing Noncontributing _____1035______ ____136________ buildings ______13_______ ____100________ sites _______0______ ______1________ structures ______402______ _____32_______ objects _____1450_____ ____269________ Total Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register __1_______ ____________________________________________________________________________ 6. Function or Use Historic Functions (Enter categories from instructions.) DOMESTIC: single dwelling_ DOMESTIC: multiple dwelling_ DOMESTIC: secondary structure COMMERCE/TRADE: business EDUCATION: school_______ RELIGION: religious facility_ LANDSCAPE: park_ INDUSTRY: processing/extraction INDUSTRY: energy facility AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE: processing TRANSPORTATION: rail related Sections 9-end page 3 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 Buena Vista Historic District Campbell County, KY Name of Property County and State Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions.) DOMESTIC: single dwelling DOMESTIC: multiple dwelling DOMESTIC: secondary structure COMMERCE/TRADE: business EDUCATION: school RELIGION: religious facility INDUSTRY: manufacturing facility LANDSCAPE: park LANDSCAPE: parking lot VACANT: not in use _____________________________________________________________________ 7. Description Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions.) MID-19TH CENTURY: Greek Revival LATE VICTORIAN: Italianate LATE VICTORIAN: Second Empire LATE VICTORIAN: Queen Anne LATE VICTORIAN: Stick/Eastlake Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements: Bungalow / Craftsman OTHER: I-house OTHER: shotgun house OTHER: Northern Kentucky Townhouse Materials: Principal exterior materials in the district: _wood, brick, stone, concrete, slate, tin, iron Sections 9-end page 4 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 Buena Vista Historic District Campbell County, KY Name of Property County and State Narrative Description ______________________________________________________________________________ Summary Paragraph The proposed Buena Vista Historic District is a compact, densely built neighborhood in Newport, Kentucky, a small city at the confluence of the Ohio and Licking rivers opposite Cincinnati. (See map.) It is located in the southwest corner of Newport, where the Licking to the west and steep hills rising to the south form natural boundaries. As is characteristic of northern Kentucky’s river cities from Dayton to Ludlow, the neighborhood is a tight grid of narrow streets, angled to the northeast, platted with small, rectangular lots typically measuring approximately 25 by 100 feet. (See Sanborn Fire Insurance maps.) Because of its density, there is little public open space apart from the City-owned Buena Vista Park south of Twelfth Street, and Freudenberg Park on the 700 block of Liberty Street, and there are no formal public spaces. (See Figure 1.) Buena Vista developed as a working and middle-class residential neighborhood with numerous industrial uses on its periphery and corner commercial buildings scattered throughout. It was platted in the 1840s and most of its buildings date from c. 1850 to 1925, with the majority constructed from c. 1870 to 1900. Its predominant building types are two- and three-bay and Northern Kentucky townhouses, shotgun cottages, and L-plan residences. The dominant architectural styles are Italianate, Second Empire, Eastlake and Queen Anne, and a few buildings reflect the influence of the Greek Revival, Colonial Revival, and Craftsman modes. Many properties, however, do not reflect any particular style, achieving distinction by form alone. Most residences stand one to two-and-a-half stories high and two to three bays wide. Brick and wood frame are the dominant materials, and numerous buildings have been reclad in modern synthetic siding. Within this framework, the district exhibits remarkable diversity, with many of its streetscapes presenting a mixture of house types, styles, and materials, apparently built over several decades. Regardless of age or scale, most buildings are built close to and highly visible from the street. Because the neighborhood is economically disadvantaged and suffers from disinvestment, numerous buildings are vacant and/or in poor condition; others have been demolished, leaving vacant lots. At the same time, the neighborhood also is seeing some new investment in the form of rehabilitation and infill housing. The proposed district contains 1,719 resources on 150.928486 acres. The proposed district includes 1450 contributing resources and 269 noncontributing resources (18% of total). (See table and map.) H. Most important contributing buildings, sites, structures, and objects. Common kinds of other contributing resources. See below. Sections 9-end page 5 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 Buena Vista Historic District Campbell County, KY Name of Property County and State _____________________________________________________________________________ Narrative Description Section 7. Description. The district setting: general characteristics. The proposed district’s boundaries clearly distinguish it from its surroundings. It is delineated by natural features and areas of different land use and contrasting topography: Newport’s central business district to the east, a rail line to the south, the Licking River and newly built industrial buildings to the west. The irregular north boundary was drawn to include significant and compatible historic resources along West Eighth Street, including the former Newport High School while excluding clusters of recently built infill structures. It also takes in the 1000 block of York Street, which was excluded from the existing York Street Historic District (National Register, 1995; National Register Information System [NRIS] #95000640) because of owner objection. Buena Vista’s hierarchy of streets accommodated a diversity of buildings, different land uses and people of varying income levels. The wider, north-south collector streets from York to Patterson and the east-west numbered streets from Eighth to Twelfth carried a larger volume of traffic, which made them attractive to corner businesses and appropriate locations for streetcar lines. They also drew more affluent people who built larger, more imposing residences on bigger lots (Photo 1, 1044 York Street). Between the collector streets are narrow, “small” streets such as Ann, Putnam, and Liberty. These alley-like streets typically were developed with modest townhomes and cottages, built close to the street on small lots, and speculative developments of the repetitive plan. They also were favored locations for small, home-based businesses such as tailor, blacksmith and carpentry shops, housed in separate structures to the rear of the lot. The older, eastern section of the neighborhood did not include dividing alleys, so these “small” streets were logical locations for providing services. Sections 9-end page 6 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 Buena Vista Historic District Campbell County, KY Name of Property County and State Figure 1 1910 Newport Sanborn map depicting the eastern section of the historic district, including modest homes along narrow Putnam St. Sections 9-end page 7 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 Buena Vista Historic District Campbell County, KY Name of Property County and State As is typical of Newport, the neighborhood’s terrain is largely level. A few surviving early buildings, however, occupy raised lots that were never graded down, suggesting that the neighborhood’s topography was more irregular in the past; buildings so sited often can serve as markers for early development. Topography also influenced the neighborhood’s land uses. Because the Ohio and Licking rivers frequently