History

Huron, located in east central South Dakota, is a result of railroad and land booms in the 1880s.  The early history of the town is closely linked with the Chicago and Northwestern Railway.  At the direction of Marvin Hughitt, General Manager of the Railroad, the west bank of the James River was selected as the division headquarters of the railroad.  The company gained title to 880 acres of land at that location.

Huron was named for the Huron Indians. Exactly who gave it the name was never established—apparently it was either Marvin Hughitt or someone in the Chicago office of the C&NW railroad company. The original plat covered 11 blocks from 1st Street to 3rd Street and from Iowa Avenue SE to Ohio Avenue SW.

Huron’s first settler was John Cain, a practical printer from Troy, New York.  He learned in Chicago, from the railroad people, that they would have their chief town and operating headquarters at their James River crossing.

From 1880 until the capital was permanently located at Pierre in 1904, Huron was in the thick of the fight for the honor of being the capital city.  Campbell and Winter Parks are the only remaining properties that were once designated capital grounds.

The site of the South Dakota State Fair is in Huron. Huron is also the home to a handful of celebrities. Cheryl Ladd is one of the "Charlie's Angels". Gladys Pyle was the first female member of the House of Representatives and the first Republican woman in the US Senate. Hubert H. Humphrey was the Democratic nominee for President in 1968 and served as Vice President under Lyndon B. Johnson.

Huron has a number of historic properties listed on the US Department of Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. The following files provide information about the seven properties that are individually listed on the National Register. The Pyle House is perhaps the best known of the individually listed historic properties.

In addition to seven individually listed historic properties, Huron also has a historic district that is listed on the National Register. Created in 1974, the Campbell Park Historic District of Huron is an irregularly shaped district including about seven square blocks of mostly residential properties located south of downtown. Campbell and Winter Parks are in the district as well as two prominent community churches and the Campbell Park band shell. As noted in the 2009 Reclassification of the district, there are 134 resources (primarily residences) built between 1880 and 1948 in the historic district. The majority of the houses (56) were built between 1900 and 1921. Predominant architectural styles in the district include Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and Bungaloid.

The 2009 Campbell Park Historic District Reclassification of Contributing / Non-Contributing Resources and the original 1974 National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Forms are included here. A map of the district is the last page of the nomination file.

Campbell Park Historic District

• Original National Nomination Form [PDF]
• 2009 Nomination Update [PDF]
• 2011 Reclassification
• Map [PDF]

Historic Preservation Links

• SD Office of History Website
• Sec. of Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and Guidelines for Rehabilitation of Historic Buildings Website
• Sec. of Interior’s Standards for Treatment of Historic Properties Website