The Riverside area is significant for its "mechanics' cottages," working-class homes with simple yet distinctive designs built in the '20s and '30s, O'Leary said, and for some homes of early residents dating back as far as the 1880s.
About 70 percent of private homes in the Riverside area - which stretches from near Seward Avenue north through Riverside Park and from North Third Street east to the Red River - are listed as "contributing elements" in the historic registry, as are the Riverside Pool and the park itself, O'Leary said.
Many homes in that area were lost during the 1997 flood, O'Leary said, but the remaining homes were sufficient to win the neighborhood the coveted federal status. The designation also comes with some requirements if the city uses federal money in the neighborhood, she said."[2]