The Blackhawk Avenue Historic District is significant in area of commerce. Although Prairie du Chien historically had three distinct commercial areas, the three-and-one-half-block stretch of Blackhawk Avenue has served the community as its primary commercial and retail district for over a century, and it is the only remaining commercial corridor extant today. Despite recent development along both North and South Marquette Road, Prairie du Chien’s primary north/south thoroughfare, Blackhawk Avenue’s distinct and notable concentration of nineteenth and twentieth-century buildings remains recognizable from its historic period and continues to function as a commercial district.

The district is also significant in the area of architecture as an intact urban commercial district featuring largely uninterrupted blocks from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century buildings. It is composed of masonry-constructed commercial and governmental buildings that reflect non-descript, vernacular commercial styling, and also includes several higher style examples that were popular during more than a century of development. Of the contributing buildings, styles represented include Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, Classical Revival, Commercial, and Modern.