National Register of Historic Places-Downtown District

As you explore the Historic Downtown District you’ll find streets lined with beautifully restored buildings and discover brick streets and quaint boutiques, plus art galleries and cozy restaurants. Flower planters and period streetlights adorn the thoroughfare. You can almost hear the “clip-clop” of horse hooves on the street from a day gone by.

The buildings, many from the late 1800s and early 1900’s are beautifully preserved. The core of the historic district is over 9 blocks and features multiple architectural styles that include late Victorian, Italianate, Queen Anne, Romanesque, Renaissance, Century Revival, Beaux Arts, Classical Revival, Spanish Revival, and others from 1863 to 1959. Forty-two of these buildings were constructed before 1900. The downtown historic district was placed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

Today, the city of Fort Scott is the only significant town still in existence in Kansas that developed from a U.S. Army fort established before Kansas became a territory and a state.