Bartlett Commercial Historic District

The Bartlett Historic District stands as a cohesive grouping of early 1900's commercial buildings and reflects the town's prosperity achieved during the early 20th Century as a cotton shipping center in central Texas. Presenting a remarkably intact main street, the district includes the core of the city's past and present commercial activities within a well-defined boundary. Particularly noteworthy is the high percentage of contributing structures within the district -- 88%. Although many of the buildings remain in fair condition, few have been significantly altered. Renewed interest in this area is demonstrated with the recent rehabilitation of the Walton Building.

Anglo settlement of the Bartlett area began during the mid 19th Century, and a small community had developed by 1880. Two landowners, John T. Bartlett and J. Edward Pietzsch, were particularly active in promoting others to settle in the region. When the MKT railroad planned to construct a line through the area in 1882, the two men recognized the opportunity for the establishment of a new town and hired a surveyor to lay out a new town site. The new city was named after Bartlett, and the streets were named in honor of various family members.

The nearby farmlands proved to be particularly well suited for cotton; thus the need for a regional distribution center was satisfied with the establishment of Bartlett. In fact, cotton has continued to be the dominant factor in Bartlett's economy. The town was incorporated in 1890 with a population of approximately 300. The commercial area originally developed west of the railroad tracks and the residential area on the east side; but by the 1890s, the trend was reversed, and the present commercial district began to take form.

As the demand for cotton continued to grow through the early 1900s, Bartlett's future seemed brighter and brighter. Advertisements for the Bartlett Cotton Exchange appeared in the local newspaper as early as 1904. One of the more prominent businessmen in the city, E.M. Wilson, sold his interest in a prosperous hardware store (1ocated in building #32 and later known as Stokes-Blair Hardware) and entered the cotton business. In 1927 he opened an office in the Houston Cotton Exchange Building (listed on the National Register 5-6-71).

The turn of the century signaled Bartlett's first major construction boom as most of the buildings within the present district were erected. No new or innovative styles or construction techniques were utilized by these new buildings; however, the structures remain as good examples of Texas vernacular commercial architecture of that period. The Old Bartlett National Bank Building (#7), the Leatherman Drug Store, and the Wilson Building (432) are a few of the more significant structures built in the city during the early 1900s. old photographs of the commercial area reveal a great deal of activity along E. Clark.