The Arcadia Historic District comprises fifty-eight blocks within 340 acres that reflect the city's development from the founding of its post office in 1883 through the late 1920s. The Town of Arcadia was incorporated in 1886 after the first train arrived that year and the area grew. In November 1888, voters chose Arcadia as the county seat of DeSoto County, which had been established in 1887. The City of Arcadia was incorporated in 1901. At the center of the district is an eighteen-block commercial zone of buildings constructed between 1900 and the late 1920s. Three buildings that survived the devastating 1905 downtown fire, and those rebuilt afterward, are generally masonry vernacular in style. The district's most imposing structure is the 1912 Classical Revival courthouse. Residential neighborhoods of mostly frame vernacular homes from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries surround the commercial area. Listed on the National Register in 1984, the district retains remarkable historical and architectural integrity in its churches, residences, schools, and commercial, governmental, and industrial buildings.