Main Street Historic District

One comes upon Milan suddenly. It appears, with an abrupt separation between the surrounding farmland and Main Street, much as it did in the early decades of this century. Along Main Street residential buildings sit among commercial, civic, and religious structures. Uneven setbacks and irregularly shaped lots, streets that turn at sharp angles, others only a block long, suggest a community that grew over time without the benefit of formal platting. Alleys and drives lead to over-grown areas that once were residential gardens. Front lawns are bordered by the brick walls of commercial buildings and behind it all the Saline River/Ford Lake meanders with hardly a building along its banks. This nostalgic scene is the setting for the Milan Main Street Historic District. The buildings nominated form a linear district, extending along Main Street for about two-and-one-half blocks. The building stock consists primarily of two-story, brick, late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century commercial buildings interspersed with residential, civic and secular buildings.