Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
From the record
“Downtown Auburn Historic District is a national historic district located at Auburn, Indiana. The district encompasses 52 contributing buildings in the central business district of Auburn.”
Wikipedia article Downtown Auburn Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 29 National Register listings published here for DeKalb County · listed in 1986 · category: District.
National Register reference number.86002858- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
The town of Garrett was laid out by Beverly L. Randolph, son of James L. Randolph, chief engineer for the Baltimore & Ohio. The original plat of Garrett was recorded at Auburn on April 9, 1875, and named Garrett in honor of John W. Garrett, president of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. The first lot was sold on the 13th day of April, 1875, to Nathan Tarney, which was lot No. I in Block No. 18, although previous to this date O. C. Clark had contracted for lots on the southwest comer of King and Randolph streets, where Reyher's dry goods store and Hershberger's grocery stores are situated. O. C. Clark built the first house in Garrett in April, 1875, now owned and occupied by the Reyher drug store. The building was first occupied in 1875 by the Lancaster brothers as a dry goods store. The first postoffice Avas also in this building, on the second floor, and A. W. Pratt was the first postmaster. He appointed T. G. Baylor assistant to hand out the mail, as he was engaged in engineering the construction of the Baltimore & Ohio shops.
O. C. Qark resided two miles west of Garrett, on a farm, and he was one of the first settlers of the county. H. M. Bicknell came over from Kendallville on April 23, 1875, and erected a one-story frame building which he used as a drug store. This was called the Pioneer Drug Store. John L. Davis, of Auburn, F. C. Davenport, Eli Kuhlman, John Robbins, P. K. David and brother were other merchants of 1875. and they prospered in the rapidly growing community. In 1875 T. A. Smith opened up a bakery, known as the Star bakery; N. B. Rowe also opened a few stores, one a bakery; Mr. Mc- Williams, from Virginia, built some frame buildings; Samuel Lemon constructed a two-story frame; Washington Cowen had his office in the latter building, on the corner now occupied by Widmer s block, and Dr. L. M. Sher- man acted as his clerk. Sheiman was the first physician to locate in the town. Isaiah Decker established the first livery and feed stable in the autumn of 1875 on the southwest corner of Peters and Keyser streets, one square north of the Catholic church. The three-story brick store on the west side of Randolph street opposite the Keyser hotel was built in 1875 by John King, at that time first vice-president of the Baltimore & Ohio, and William Keyser, second vice-president, also built a brick store on the south side of Keyser street, east of the hotel.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 13 fires within 5 miles of Downtown Auburn Historic District
between 2002 and 2004, burning about 64 acres in total. None started naturally. 3 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Recreation and ceremony
5
Arson/incendiarism
3
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
2
Debris and open burning
2
Equipment and vehicle use
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
4 workings within 5 miles of Downtown Auburn Historic District: 2 producers, 1 prospect, 1 past producer.
2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Auburn, the town this property stands in, in 43 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 27 thunderstorm wind, 12 hail, 2 flood, 1 tornado.
The reports record 1 death. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Law enforcement officials reported multiple trees down along 7th Street. One of these trees in the 400 block of 7th Street, fell onto a westbound United Parcel Service truck, striking the driver compartment. The 46 year old male driver was killed instantly.
At least 6 roads were temporarily closed, with many others posted with high water signs, as ditches overflowed and low areas filled. A senior care center was threatened by flood waters coming out of a overflown retention pond. Sandbags were placed to help, but luckily no evacuations were needed. No exact damage figure were available, but are estimated at around $150,000.
A mobile home on CR 427 was knocked on its side. Large tree limbs crushed the side of the trailer. A newspaper report stated that a citizens' band radio tower, set in cement, also toppled over and bent across the trailer. At another property across the street several trees were knocked down and two large pine trees were uprooted.
Central dispatch relayed a report of a tree being blown down onto a garage on 9th Street in Auburn. No information on the size or health of the tree and no injuries were reported.
Indiana State Police officials reported a semi-trailer rolled over on Interstate 69, at mile marker 129. No injuries were reported, but northbound lanes were closed for several hours.
A wind gust at DeKalb County Airport was measured at 75 mph. Strong winds split the trunk of a large tree near a house on DeKalb County Road 60, between the DeKalb County Airport and County Road 427. Winds tore the roof off of a barn east of the airport on DeKalb County Road 60 near the Meese Chapel United Methodist Church. Winds also blew down tents that had been set up at Kruse Auction Park in preparation for the Labor Day weekend classic car auction.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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