Cartouche/First Virginia Bank
Conspicuously displayed at the corner of Franklin and Church Streets, the 1928 cast-stone People’s National Bank is an excellent example of Art Deco architecture with Egyptian Revival details in its door surround.
Buttress Anchor/Rocky Mount Presbyterian Church
A good example of a Gothic Revival-style church in Rocky Mount is the Rocky Mount Presbyterian Church. Built circa 1880, the brick and buttressed church reopened shortly after the fire of 1889. Today it stands alone along Floyd Avenue at the district’s southern boundary. Most of its major features remain intact save for the bell tower and some of the stained glass windows. The church bell is displayed in the front yard.
Iron Cross/Trinity Episcopal Church
This church was originally built of frame construction and located where Main Street now runs. With the widening of Main Street, the church was moved to its present location in 1906, extended in the rear, encased with quarried stone, and had its gable roof covered with slate shingles (now clad in copper metal sheathing). A tall stone wall now aligns the property along North Main Street.
Decorative Gablework/Hale Street
A good example of a simple Queen Anne style, cross-gable house with decorative cut-sawn brackets and return eaves. It is most likely one of the earliest houses associated with the Bald Knob Furniture Factory, and N.P. Angle built the most decorative of the other houses lining Hales Street. Aluminum siding covers the house and standing seam metal clad the gable roofs with gable returns.
Gothic Revival Door/Trinity Episcopal Church
As the oldest extant church in Rocky Mount, Trinity Episcopal Church still retains its stained glass arched windows, its arched door, its steeply pitched gable roof, and its interior metal trusses. Designed by Louis Smithey of Smithey & Boynton, the 1950 parish hall and office are connected to the eastside church with a covered stone archway. Jubal A. Early was one of the first supporters of the church.
Decorative Ironwork/High Street Cemetery
A large cemetery along the ridge of High Street, it contains between 300 and 500 markers; most are polished granite headstones from 1885 up to the present with a concentration of 1940s. Some of the families included are: Poindexter, Deyerle, Lee, Arrington, English, Holt, Perdue, and Kent. The site overlooks the northern industrial area of Rocky Mount and is shaded by large specimen trees.
Barber Pole/Church Street
A sign and artifact, the painted wood barber pole on Church Street contributes to the charm of Rocky Mount and harks back to days past when towns were small and times were simpler.
Mural/Hub Restaurant
This popular local restaurant is a meeting place for the community. The original frame and concrete block one-story structure has been incorporated into a modern façade with plate glass windows and false mansard roof addition.
Pilaster/Franklin County Courthouse
Facing South Main Street at Court Street, this imposing courthouse was designed by Roanoke architect H.H. Huggins to replace the 1831 brick courthouse facing Court Street. A two-story pedimented portico dominates the massive two-story brick structure that was painted white.