National Historic District
Type - Commercial
Location – Two blocks northeast of Main Street
Boundaries - Along 7th Avenue East, both sides, and around the depot
History – Seventh Avenue East developed as a commercial district during the late 19th and early 20th centuries around Hendersonville’s first depot, established in 1879. The majority of the buildings are simple one and two-story brick commercial and warehouse structures in the typical pattern of buildings connecting to each other. There are thirty-two contributing structures.
Inventory Procedure
House construction dates are based upon 1912, 1922, 1926 and 1954 Sanborn maps used in the field; city directories from 1915, 1926, and 1937-1952; owner-provided information; and deeds. The 1915 and 1926 directories are not broken down by street addresses, so without checking deeds on each property it was not possible to link an owner with a specific house. Therefore, many of the houses are named for the owners of record in the directories in the late 1930s since there is a gap in the available directories from 1926 to 1937. The 1937 directory is the first time in which street addresses appear. These sources are noted with each entry.
Contributing properties must be at least fifty years of age and retain their original form. The application of artificial siding, changing of window sash, the addition of modern doors, the screening of a porch, and additions placed away from the main facade of the building are features which are allowed under this classification. Non-contributing buildings are those which are less than fifty years old, or older buildings which no longer retain their original form. This would include the placement of additions which alter the main facade, or enclosure of porches which severely alters the configuration of the entry to a building. If windows are altered through the retrofitting of a smaller window frame within the original opening, this will also make a building non-contributing.