The Williamson Historic District covers forty-six acres on the north side of Williamson, roughly bounded by the Norfolk and Western railroad tracks and Prichard, Poplar, Park, Mulberry, and Elm streets. Certified by the National Register of Historic Places in 2006, it contains almost 350 resources, including homes, commercial buildings, a former hospital, brick-paved streets, and a cemetery. Its buildings show architectural styles popular from the late 1890s through the 1950s, including Queen Anne, Neo-Classical, Colonial Revival, Dutch Revival, and American Foursquare, while other buildings reflect regional building traditions without a formal style. Together they show Williamson's growth and maturity through coal, timber, and railroad development beginning in the 1890s and continuing for the next half-century. Most of the town's earliest buildings were wooden, reflecting the region's abundant forests, but many were destroyed by a series of fires, the worst in 1906 destroying more than twenty buildings. As Williamson rebuilt, masonry became the preferred material, and many streets were paved with brick beginning in 1904, much of that work done by Italian immigrant contractor Thoney Pietro of Fairmount; portions of this paving remain visible along 5th and 6th avenues. Williamson saw an accelerated building boom in 1927, with nearly one billion dollars in new construction, including public buildings, a community hospital, apartment buildings, and many private homes. During the 1930s, residential areas expanded north of the Norfolk and Western rail yards, which formed a central spine between the residential and commercial sections, with Tug Fork and South Williamson, Kentucky, to the south. Historic buildings outside the district but south of the tracks include the Neo-Classical Mountaineer Hotel, completed in 1926, and the Coal House, built in 1933 as a symbol of the "Billion Dollar Coalfield" centered on Williamson. Within and around the district are other notable features, including retaining walls built in brick and stone by Italian stonemasons Joe Raimella and Robert Zando, an entry gate with the initials LBC made by the Stuart Iron Works of Cincinnati, the former Presbyterian Academy Building at 138 Oak Street, early brick streets, a cemetery on Maple Street with graves of members of the Williamson family and others including "Servant Mammy Maria," and a stone marking the geographic center of the city on 5th Avenue in front of the Linkous House.