Shinnston Historic District is a national historic district

Historic district (United States)

In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...

 located at Shinnston

Shinnston, West Virginia

Shinnston is a city in Harrison County, West Virginia, United States, along the West Fork River. The population was 2,295 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Shinnston is located at ....

, Harrison County, West Virginia

Harrison County, West Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 68,652 people, 27,867 households, and 19,088 families residing in the county. The population density was 165 people per square mile . There were 31,112 housing units at an average density of 75 per square mile...

. The district encompasses 143 contributing buildings in the central business district and surrounding residential areas of Shinnston. The major influence on the town's development was the arrival of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which...

 in 1890. Notable buildings include the Frank Abruzzino House (1922), Aaron Shinn House (c. 1821), I.O.O.F. Lodge building (1906), Dr. Emory Strickler or Wilma Watkins House (c. 1875), Guarascio or Ashby Apartments (c. 1910), and the The First National Bank of Shinnston. The district includes notable examples of popular 19th and early 20th century architectural styles including Gothic Revival

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

, Italianate

Italianate architecture

The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...

, and Shingle Style.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

in 1998.