Lake Adair- Lake Concord Historic District

The Lake Adair–Lake Concord Historic District reflects the change that automobiles brought to community planning and development and to the resulting growth of a middle and upper-class community. A lack of transportation had kept even the affluent population in the city, but by 1920, developers began platting communities for wealthier residents among the lakes near the city limits.

Larger building lots along curving, landscaped streets attracted buyers who hired well-known local architects to design distinctive houses. The Lake Adair-Lake Concord Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011, in recognition of its variety of outstanding architecture.

The 148-acre district contains 400 buildings, of which 77 percent were listed as contributing to the district. The residences vary widely in size and style, and they represent the work of more than 30 architects, including James Gamble Rogers, II, R. C. Stevens, Maurice Kressley, Howard Reynolds, Richard Boone Rogers, and Harold “Rabbit” Hair.

The largest and most imposing residences front on the lakes, but many fine historic homes are found elsewhere within the district’s 29 blocks, which include parts of 29 subdivisions.