Doctors Row Historic District

The Doctors' Row Historic District is a historic commercial district located on the north side of West Fourth Street between Frederica Street and St. Ann Street in Owensboro, Kentucky, including buildings at the corners of 335 Frederica Street and 324 St. Ann Street. The district takes its name from the concentration of physicians' and dentists' offices that occupied its buildings in the early twentieth century. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 as part of the Owensboro Multiple Resource Area.

Description

The district is comprised of seven commercial buildings on the north side of West Fourth Street, lying at the southern boundary of the downtown commercial area. The buildings are now used for professional office space.

The anchor building at 335 Frederica is a three-story Italianate structure with a modern storefront on the first floor. The upper floors have windows surrounded by segmental-arched stone lintels with keystones, and the facade is topped by a corner turret decoration and an elaborate sheet-metal cornice with a central panel reading 1893. The West Fourth Street facade is divided into seven descending sections, each separated by brick pilasters, with a smooth rhythm of corbelled section tops.

An interesting pair of Victorian town houses occupy 209 and 207 West Fourth Street. 209 West Fourth is a two-story brick structure with a Colonial doorway and bay added in 1970. 207 West Fourth retains its original one-story Victorian front porch with turned columns, spindle balustrade, and decorative brackets; the first floor has an arced front window and an asymmetrical front door with original stained glass.

201, 203, and 205 West Fourth are a row of Italianate buildings constructed as a unit. 205 West Fourth retains the most intact storefront, with a four-bay cast-iron post-and-lintel front including original iron threshold, pilasters, and sheet-metal cornice. A unified second floor of rectangular and round-arched windows with stone lintels and brick pilasters runs above all three storefronts.

The building at 324 St. Ann is a three-story brick structure framed by three-story rusticated stone pilasters, with a double basement entranceway and arched second-floor windows.

History

Owensboro developed as a regional medical center from an early date. By 1907 there were forty-four doctors plus approximately half as many dentists in the city. Many of these practitioners maintained offices along West Fourth Street — including four doctors whose offices were accessed from the side entrance of 335 Frederica — giving rise to the informal name "Doctors' Row." City directories from the early 1900s show between one and three doctors' offices in each building along West Fourth Street. The block at 324 St. Ann was also occupied by one or two medical offices. The block retains one dentist and three optometrists in addition to several law offices.

Significance

Doctors' Row is significant under Criteria A and C: as an outstanding collection of late nineteenth-century commercial architecture, and for its association with the early development of Owensboro as a regional medical center serving Daviess County and surrounding counties. Owensboro continues to serve as a regional medical center for western Kentucky.

References

• Kentucky Heritage Council. National Register of Historic Places Nomination: Owensboro Multiple Resource Area. Frankfort: Kentucky Heritage Council, 1985.