The Lincoln Boulevard Historic District is located on the north side of the City of Manitowoc. The district is centered around a tree-lined boulevard that contains nearly every architectural style popular in Wisconsin between 1895 and 1960. The earliest part of Lincoln Boulevard was established in 1892, and the opening of an electric streetcar line in 1901 gave the neighborhood its real start.

The streetcar line, located one block south of the boulevard, ran between downtown Manitowoc and downtown Two Rivers, including a scenic five-mile stretch along the shore of Lake Michigan. The streetcar provided convenient access to the downtown business district, and in the era before automobiles, it offered families the chance to live further from the noise and dirt of the city center.

The Lincoln Boulevard Historic District contains eighty-four houses in a range of distinctive architectural styles. The oldest part of the district, at the south end of the boulevard, contains several notable Queen Anne-style houses, identifiable by their exuberant use of multiple materials like stone, brick, clapboard, and shingles. Further north, the district contains cozy bungalows and two impressive Craftsman-style houses with broad, welcoming porches.

The largest and most imposing houses are located halfway along Lincoln Boulevard, where Waldo Boulevard crosses through the district. The houses in this area were constructed in the 1920s and 1930s and reflect that era’s interest in historic architectural styles. Tudor Revival and French Provincial-style houses drew on medieval European precedents with brick walls, stone towers, and slate roofs. Colonial Revival-style houses used early American buildings as their models, sometimes even reproducing specific building elements such as porches or entryways to create houses that might be modern inside but looked reassuringly traditional outside.

The district also includes several fine examples of post-WWII architectural styles. There are Minimal Traditional-style houses, Ranch houses, and even a Split Level house. Despite being constructed over a period of six decades, the houses along the boulevard and on Oak Street feel remarkably cohesive, thanks to the overall high level of construction and materials. Perhaps even more than the individual houses, the landscape is crucial to the setting and distinctive feel of the neighborhood, making the Lincoln Boulevard Historic District a unique place in the city of Manitowoc and worthy of inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.