Fairgrove Avenue Historic District

The Fairgrove Historic District is significant as the best cohesive example of tum-of-the-century middle-class residential street remaining in Pontiac. Taken as an ensemble, the district represents an important component in the development of Pontiac. The district is characterized by vernacular Victorian and colonial revival architectural styles. A feeling of cohesiveness is achieved through the compatibility of these styles and the use of similar materials, lot size, building scale, and street setback. Most of the houses have front porches providing a repetitive rhythm to the uniform street facade. Mature street trees also contribute to the aesthetic quality of the district. The Fairgrove Historic District is noted for its cohesiveness and for the lack of intrusions from structures of other periods or by other types of land use.

The one-block long Fairgrove Avenue Historic District is a tum-of-the-century middle-class residential neighborhood development composed of twenty-eight moderate-to-large scale single-family detached houses placed on relatively small lots. The district is located north of the central business district in Pontiac, Michigan's sixth largest city. The houses were built between 1895 and 1920, with the majority being constructed before 1910. Architectural styles range from simplified Queen Anne to colonial revival. The houses are uniform in scale, being two-and-one-half stories in height, and maintain a repetitive setback from the street, creating a uniform facade line. A few of the houses in the district have been sided but the overall integrity of the district remains high. There are no non-contributing structures in the district. The district consists of one street, Fairgrove Avenue, and includes both sides of the street from N. Saginaw Street to Edison Street. This includes the entire length of Fairgrove with the exception of a small section from Edison Street to Perry Street, where the two houses with Fairgrove addresses are actually oriented toward Perry Street. These two structures are isolated from the other Fairgrove Avenue houses and are of lesser scale and quality. The houses at the west end of Fairgrove Avenue, which have N. Saginaw addresses, are included because they are actually oriented towards Fairgrove Avenue and are similar in quality, scale and setback as the other houses in the district. Fairgrove Avenue is located North of the Pontiac central business district surrounded by an area of lesser quality homes. The street is lined with mature deciduous trees and the streetscape is unbroken except for one vacant lot where a fire damaged house was removed. The uniform setback from the street, the narrow lots, the building scale, and the fact that almost all the houses have large front porches add to the cohesiveness of the district. The primary land use in the district is single-family, detached residences. However, there are two duplexes in the district, and some former single-family structures have been converted to apartments. The district also contains a stone marker on the southeast corner of Fairgrove and N. Saginaw that commemorates the Civil War use of the fairground as a training ground and encampment.