Downtown Loveland was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic District in 2015 by the National Park Service. The District, centered on East 4th Street and roughly bounded by Railroad and Jefferson Avenue including a two-block span of Railroad Avenue, served as the center of economic activity in Loveland for over a century.

Founded in 1877, Loveland developed initially as a railroad town, but soon became a major agricultural center and a regional center of commerce and government. The Downtown Loveland National Historic District reflects the evolution of the City’s commercial growth and exhibits the architectural evolution of Loveland’s ever changing commercial needs and tastes. Of the District’s fifty-eight buildings, forty-five are considered “contributing” to the historical and architectural significance of the District and include Late 19th-and Early 20th-Century commercial style architecture as well as notable examples of Classical, Romanesque, and Mission Revival style buildings. 

The designation that the City received in 2015 culminates seven years of work by City officials, including an intensive push during the past three years by the Community and Strategic Planning Division and the Historic Preservation Commission.

The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places deemed worthy of preservation. Authorized under the National Historic Preservation act of 1966, the National Register is part of a federal program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect the country’s historic and archaeological resources. Aside from the honorific recognition of Loveland’s downtown as historically valuable, listing in the National Register offers financial benefits to property owners including preservation grants, historic tax credits, tax benefits for preservation easements, and a measure of protection from the possible impact of federally funded projects.

The National Register designation does not require investment by property owners, nor does it interfere with owners’ ability to alter, or even demolish, the buildings they own unless they take advantage of the federal tax credits.