Main Street

Main Street is where Deadwood became permanent. The city’s own walking tour describes a progression familiar across the mining West, but unusually visible here: fabric tents gave way to timber frames, and timber frames gave way to brick and mortar. The turning point was the fire of 1879, which destroyed the town’s business section. The Phoenix Block, named for the mythical bird and standing in the block above Lee Street, was the first brick building erected afterward.

Water did nearly as much damage as fire. A flood in May 1883 destroyed about 150 buildings and took three lives, according to the federal nomination for the historic district. Whitewood Creek was once a visible, unruly neighbor, crossed by bridges connecting Main and Sherman streets. Flooding returned often until the 1960s, when the creek was contained, and today it runs unseen beneath the US 85 and 14A highway.

The city dates its golden age of architecture to 1890 through 1920, and the bulk of the present town stood by 1914. Main Street, the archives note, looks largely as it did in 1902. From one corner at Wall Street you can read several eras at once: a streamlined 1930s auto showroom in Art Deco style, the Queen Anne detailing of the Fairmont Hotel, and the Italianate front of the Bullock Hotel. Lamps cast from fixtures that first lit the street in 1912 still glow at dusk.

The lower end of the street had a rougher reputation. Saloons, brothels and gaming halls clustered here beside the large Chinatown district, and archaeologists have excavated parts of this area since 1990.

To explore it, follow the Historic Main Street Urban Trail: 21 interpretive signs, less than a mile of easy walking and about 30 minutes, starting across Pine Street from the History and Information Center.

Sources: NPS: Deadwood Historic District nomination and amendment, City of Deadwood Archives: Historic Deadwood Walking Tour, City of Deadwood: A National Historic Landmark, NPS: National Historic Landmarks by state