As the country emerged from the final days of the Civil War in 1865, Bowling Green was already actively engaged in draining the Great Black Swamp. Early Wood County settlers dreaded making the journey across the swamp to conduct legal and commercial business in Perrysburg, so by 1870 Bowling Green had become the Wood County seat. Soon after, the first brick buildings appeared on Main Street with the Lincoln Block in 1874 and the Union Block in 1877. These structures featured Italianate architecture, while later buildings in this contiguous two-block group from Court Street to Clough Street included Queen Anne, Classical Revival, and Romanesque Revival styles. By 1880, Bowling Green was thriving as the rail industry appeared and the town grew in importance as a seat of government. Its first courthouse in the new county seat had been built in 1868, and by 1867 the town claimed three lumber yards, multiple dry goods merchants, several grocery stores, two shoe stores, a drug store, two carriage shops, two blacksmiths, three millinery shops, and a barrel and tub factory. Main Street included buildings such as the Union Block, the Exchange Bank, the Lease House, and the Lincoln Block. By 1910, Bowling Green had a thriving downtown business district with many brick buildings and enterprising businesses, and the town was one of only a few cities in Ohio that was dry by local agreement, a moral atmosphere considered helpful in making it a popular choice for a state university. The Great Black Swamp, estimated at 1,500 square miles, had long deterred all but the most determined settlers from locating in northwest Ohio, stretching parallel to the east bank of the Maumee River and extending southwest from Lake Erie to New Haven, Indiana. By 1928, many downtown buildings remained prominent, including a notable three-story Neoclassical structure built originally for the Commercial Bank, whose exterior remained unaltered after its construction for $150,000. The Main Street Historic District was placed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.