The Presidential District
History Link: A Trail to Deadwood’s Past
As South Deadwood expanded along Sherman Street in early 1876, log cabins and small frame houses appeared on the hillsides above the mining camp. A cemetery was quickly established on a hill deemed too far away from town to ever be developed. Soon known as Ingleside, it was the original burial place of Wild Bill Hickok, Preacher Henry Weston Smith and dozens of faceless miners, muleskinners and madams.
In 1877 the gentle slopes of the hill became attractive to homeowners, who were being displaced by commercial growth on the flat land at the bottom of the gulch. By 1880 the cemetery had been moved further up the hill, clearing the way for new residential development. Within a few years the Ingleside neighborhood had replaced Forest Hill as the most fashionable quarter in town. Seth Bullock, Harris Franklin, Ben Baer, John Treber, Henry Frawley, Geroge Ayres, Freeman Knowles and Charles and Jonas Zoellner all lived in Ingleside area, which was marked by large Queen-Anne-style homes.
In time Ingleside became known as the Presidential District, since the neighborhood’s streets were named for all the Presidents of the United States from Washington to Lincoln, with two mysterious exceptions: Franklin Pierce and James K. Polk. At its peak, the Presidential District was home to the county jail and its own two-story school, although these were eventually demolished and replaced by homes. Following World War I, Upper Main supplanted the Presidential District as Deadwood’s most stylish neighborhood.
After World War II, the Presidential area began to decline with the rest of Deadwood. Some of the largest homes – including the imposing Treber House – were claimed by fire, while others were converted into apartments and allowed to deteriorate. However, the legalization of limited stakes gaming in 1989 has helped revitalize the neighborhood. Most noticeably, gaming provided historic preservation funds for 22 Van Buren Street, which is now the public Adams House Museum. Many other private residences have been restored since the 1990s.
Marker is on Van Buren Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
