Decade built · 1850s

Built in the 1850s

Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan each held the office. The Compromise of 1850 carried a stricter Fugitive Slave Act, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 reopened the territorial fight and led to violence in Kansas. Railroad mileage roughly tripled over the decade.

1,005 places on the National Register have a construction year in the 1850s on record. They stand in 46 states and territories. 22 are National Historic Landmarks.

← 1840s · 1860s →

Construction years come from Wikidata, matched on National Register reference number. Only plain four-digit years are counted, so a place recorded as circa or as a range is left out. Data refreshed September 19, 2026.

1,005

Listings

States

National Historic Landmarks

Historic districts

By state

Massachusetts 130 Wisconsin 106 Mississippi 65 New York 59 Tennessee 56 Iowa 49 Michigan 42 North Carolina 37 Maine 34 California 30 Alabama 28 Louisiana 26 Kentucky 23 Minnesota 22 Ohio 22 Illinois 20 Pennsylvania 20Kansas 19South Carolina 18Georgia 17Missouri 16Indiana 14Virginia 14New Jersey 13Texas 13Oregon 11Utah 11Maryland 9Florida 8Rhode Island 8West Virginia 8Puerto Rico 7Vermont 7Connecticut 6New Hampshire 6New Mexico 5Washington 5Nebraska 4Arkansas 3District of Columbia 3Delaware 3Oklahoma 3Colorado 1Guam 1Montana 1Wyoming 1

Longest-lived styles of the decade

Style	In the 1850s	Dated examples, all decades	Years in use
Neoclassical	27	1023	1680 to 2016
Greek Revival	337	1093	1660 to 1987
Vernacular	28	182	1662 to 1984
Georgian	2	192	1666 to 1986
Gothic Revival	81	753	1702 to 2017
Renaissance Revival	29	482	1712 to 2015
Colonial Revival	13	797	1701 to 1998
Federal	22	599	1700 to 1996

Style labels come from Wikidata. A style is ranked by the span between the earliest and latest dated listing that carries it, across the whole register, and only styles with two or more listings in this decade are shown. Data refreshed September 19, 2026.