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Nn Form iMM s OMB Approval No.1024-WIS <br /> (&W) <br /> United States Department of the interior <br /> National Park Service <br /> National Register of Historic Places <br /> Continuation Sheet <br /> Section number 7 Page 6 <br /> in November 1861, destroying most of the early buildings. The 1860s <br /> buildings that remain in Black Hawk are narrow, rectangular plan, two-story <br /> buildings with false fronts, some with bracketed wood entablatures, walls <br /> covered with horizontal wood siding, plain rectangular double-hung wood sash <br /> windows, and shed roofs. There was little adornment on these early <br /> buildings, except bracketed entablatures and occasional small window <br /> pediments. Usually they were clustered into tightly-knit units to convey <br /> the appearance of a rudimentary "cityscape" in sparsely populated frontier <br /> areas. <br /> Masonry buildings also remain from the late 1860s and 1870s, representing <br /> the second or "town" phase of mining town development.' These generally <br /> have brick facades, some with stone walls on the side and rear elevations. <br /> As these replaced the wooden buildings, they too were built contiguously to <br /> create a more sophisticated urban landscape, most sharing common walls with <br /> adjacent buildings. Like the wood frame buildings, they generally are <br /> vernacular rather than high style, but with Italianate elements. These <br /> elements include ornate storefronts with iron columns, bracketed <br /> entablatures, and tall rectangular windows with high round arches, some with <br /> radiating voussoirs and keystones and some with multi-paned tracery windows. <br /> Elaborate corbeled entablatures on some buildings also were influenced by <br /> Queen Anne style brick work. Italianate iron entablatures were more <br /> elaborate with a deep overhang and scrolled brackets. The buildings housed a <br /> variety of. shops and offices to serve the mining community and typically had <br /> living quarters and offices on the second story. In Central City, the 150- <br /> room Teller House (C23-3) was the most important building erected prior to <br /> the fire of 1874, and it symbolized the economic optimism of the decade. <br /> On May 21, 1874, almost the entire town of Central City was destroyed by <br /> fire. After destroying the frame shanties around Spring Street, the fire <br /> spread to Main on both sides down to Lawrence and Eureka where the Register <br /> Building stopped it on one side of the street and the Teller House on the <br /> other. On Main, the fireproof Roworth Block (Cl-8) was the only one to <br /> escape destruction; on Lawrence, the Raynolds Building, also known as <br /> Raynold`s Beehive, (C4-13) , which is often credited with stopping the fire, <br /> survived. <br /> Most of the extant commercial district in Central City was constructed of <br /> brick or stone in the years immediately following the fire of 1874. <br /> Distinctive architectural features include the same corbeled entablatures <br /> and round arches of the previous decade, but there is much greater variation <br /> in detail. Round arched windows were given more elaborate hood molds, and <br />