Paragould Downtown Historic Commercial District

Historic district listed in National Register of Historic Places contains 1882 - 1953 structures that reflect such architectural styles as Twentieth Century Commercial, Classical Revival, & Minimal Traditional. The city's name combines the last names of competing railroad magnates J. W. Paramore and Jay Gould, whose railroads intersected here in 1882.  Paramore owned the Texas & St. Louis Railway (later the Cotton Belt), while Gould headed the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway (later the Missouri Pacific). Believed to be the only city in the world with this name, the story goes that Gould objected to his name's being second and refused to list the new town on his schedules.