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NPS iam 10400-4 QWB Aav"No 1024MIS (sae) United States Department of the interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number s Page 12 Because it suffered no devastating fire, as occurred in 1874 in Central City and on several occasions in Nevadaville, Black Hawk still retains a substantial portion of 1860s commercial and institutional buildings, some of frame construction. The Heppberger House (B40-2) is a frame commercial building, possibly built as early as 1860. Heppberger ran a teamster business, hauling ore from the mines to the mills in Black Hawk. Another row of frame buildings on Gregory Street also are believed to date from the early 1860s. Their second stories were used as living quarters and the ground level for a variety of businesses, including a sweet shop and doctor' s office. Other early masonry buildings in the Black Hawk commercial district on Main and Gregory Streets are the Corner Grocery (B35-3) , which served in that capacity until the late 1970s, and the adjacent Rohling Building (B35-1) , built by German immigrant J . H. Philip Rohling who was then a merchant and mayor of Black Hawk. The number of community institutional buildings was an even stronger indication of the economic optimism and reflects a sense of community permanence among the citizenry. In October 1860, there were three or four log schools in the district, including one at Nevadaville. The permanent Black Hawk School (B25-6) was completed in 1870 adjacent to the Presbyterian Church (B25-5) . In 1906, the church was purchased by the School Board and converted to the school gymnasium) . The granite Central City School (Old High School [C7-11] ) was started in 1869 and completed in time for the opening of school in September 1870. In 1900, when enrollment exceeded space, the brick Italian Villa style Clark Grade School (C4-14) was constructed. Washington Hall (C5-3) was the primary public building of Central City's first decade and is one of only two significant frame structures to survive the great fire of 1874. Its log shell was framed in 1861 and the siding added about 1864. The building served as the primary community hall in the historic period; after 1900 it became City Hall. From the 1860s through the following decades, the Gregory Miners' Court and then the first District Court of the Territory convened there. County offices and the jail were on the first floor. The Methodists (largely Cornish) and the Presbyterians (Scots) both used its courtroom as a meeting hall. In 1871, the building was such an active political arena that the second-story floor collapsed, sending over 200 delegates in a fall to the floor below. In addition to its official function, it housed a saloon. Its use illustrates the multiple social functions of most public buildings of the period. The building used as City Hall (C1-13) before it was moved to Washington Hall also was built in the 1860s. Though altered by the fire of 1874 and changed by successive