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Downtown Research Project

Click on each Block below for information and historical pictures.

• Block 38 – North side of 18th to 17th Streets
• Block 37 – North side of 17th to 16th Streets
• Block 36 – North side of 16th to 15th Streets
• Block 45 – South side of 18th to 17th Streets
  
• Block 46 – South side of 17th to 16th Streets
• Block 47 – South side of 16th to 15th Streets

Blair’s downtown area is characterized by historic one- and two-story brick buildings laid out along Washington Street. In the late 1800s, many of these were built to replace 10- and 15-year-old wooden structures that were typical of early communities. Today they give the downtown district a distinctive charm.

EARLY DOWNTOWN
Originally the business district was more centered on Walker Street (now 16th Street) and ran north from Washington to about State Street. In fact, the first town lots were auctioned off from the corner of 16th and State Street in 1869. By the early 1880s more substantial buildings were being erected on the east-west Washington Street, thus making it “Main Street” in Blair by the 1890s.