34 Illinois sites added to National Register

Efforts to identify and honor the state’s most historic places paid off in 2013 with 23 Illinois buildings and 11 historic districts being added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The buildings and neighborhoods are scattered from Chicago to Macomb to Alton. They include luxury apartment buildings, courthouse squares, factories and private homes.

Sites are added to the National Register by the National Park Service based on recommendations from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Thousands of Illinois historic and prehistoric places have been designated, and more places are added each year by applicants who want the prestige, financial benefits and protections that National Register designation provides.

The 2013 additions to the National Register from Illinois include:

COLLAR COUNTIES

• Beecher Mausoleum, vicinity of Beecher

The Beecher Mausoleum, built in 1914, is significant as a representation of a shift in the country’s burial methods. In mausoleums, the remains of people are placed in crypts, not graves. The Beecher Mausoleum is also a good local example of the Classical Revival Style.

• Downtown Plainfield Historic District, Plainfield

The Downtown Plainfield Historic District is locally significant as the historic commercial and civic center of Plainfield and for the variety of architectural styles found here. Lockport Street was also part of the Lincoln Highway route established in 1913.

• Glen Ellyn Downtown North Historic District and Glen Ellyn Downtown South Historic District, Glen Ellyn

The two downtown historic districts are significant as physical representations of the commercial history of Glen Ellyn, which evolved from a small cluster of blacksmith shops, harness-makers and groceries along a railroad in the 1850s, into a compact and lively central business district serving a booming suburban population 100 years later. The earliest buildings in the district date from the 1890s, with most from the prosperous decades of the early 20th century.

• Pure Oil Station, 502 W. State St., Geneva

The Pure Oil Station in Geneva is an excellent example of the Tudor Revival style, especially as it was applied to commercial architecture in the early half of the 20th century. The station also illustrates the use of architecture as a commercial marketing technique.

• Waukegan Carnegie Library, Waukegan

The Waukegan Carnegie Library, built in 1911, provided free public library service for the Waukegan community for over half a century. Designed by the architectural firm of Patton & Miller, the library is a good representative of the Classical Revival Style.

COOK COUNTY

• 320 West Oakdale Avenue, Chicago

This building is a good local example of mid-20th century Modem architecture in a Chicago residential high-rise building. The 21-story, lakefront luxury apartment building was part of the tall apartment building boom that occurred in Chicago during the 1950s and 1960s. The building was completed in 1954.

• 42nd Precinct Police Station, 3600 N. Halsted St., Chicago

The 42nd Precinct Police Station in Chicago's Lakeview community is a distinctive example of a government building in the Classical Revival style. Distinguished by its symmetrical facade arrangement, classically inspired ornament, distinctive copper cornice and grand scale, the station shows the influence of classicism on architecture after the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

• Bush Temple of Music, Chicago

The Bush Temple of Music is a significant example of a commercial building in the French Renaissance Revival "Chateau-esque" style, and as an extremely rare and large-scale example of the style in Chicago. Completed in early 1902, the building was constructed in a style typically reserved for mansions of the wealthy elite.

• Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical University Building, 1338-1342 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago

This building is locally significant as the home of the Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical University, the Midwest’s first accredited flight school to admit black students and to hire black instructors. During the early 1900s, Chicago emerged as a center for black aviation rivaled only by Los Angeles. The building is one of the last remaining structures associated with the rise of Chicago's black aviation community.

• Drucker House, Wilmette

The Suzanne and Robert Drucker House is an excellent example of a Mid-century Modern house. It is simple, functional and carefully detailed, with a design based on geometric relationships instead of historical precedent.

• Kosciuszko Park Field House, 2732 N. Avers Ave., Chicago

After 100 years, Kosciuszko Park Field House remains a significant building in the Logan Square Community. The 1914 field house is significant for its Tudor Revival architecture and the important social and cultural events it hosted over the decades.

• The Neuville, 232 E. Walton Pl., Chicago

The Neuville is a locally significant example of a luxury high-rise apartment building, a type which developed in Chicago and New York in the first quarter of the 20th century. The Neuville was one of the earlier buildings of this type constructed in the near north area of Chicago, where large single-family homes gave way to apartment buildings that offered the amenities of private mansions.

• Passionist Fathers Monastery, 5700 N. Harlem Drive, Chicago

The Passionist Fathers Monastery, completed in 1910, is a fine example of an early 20th century monastery with Classical, Baroque and Romanesque detailing. It is one of the largest and most prominent religious structures in the Chicago community of Norwood Park.

• Polish Roman Catholic Union of America Building, 984 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago

Polish Roman Catholic Union of America Building is significant for its association with Chicago's immigration settlements. The PRCUA Building continues to house the organization and the Polish Museum and Archive. It is affiliated with the cultivation of Polish identity in Chicago (the largest Polish community in the United States).

• Stony Island Trust & Savings Bank Building, Chicago

Completed in 1923, the Stony Island Trust & Savings Bank Building was among dozens of small Chicago neighborhood banks constructed in the late 1910s and 1920s. Owned by and catering to members of the local community, the bank became a center of Chicago South Shore economic life and a symbol of growing neighborhood prosperity.

• Storkline Furniture Corporation Factory, 4400-4418 W. 26th St., Chicago

Constructed in 1925 with additions through the mid-to-late 1930s, the building is significant for its association with the Storkline Furniture Corporation, one of the largest manufacturers of infant and juvenile furniture in the country from the 1920s through the mid-1960s. Storkline's baby carriages, cribs and school furniture were produced exclusively in this plant for more than 30 years and were distributed to 6,000 retail concerns across the country.

• Strand Hotel, 6315-6323 S. Cottage Grove Ave., Chicago

The Strand Hotel is the only remaining example of a residential hotel in the Woodlawn neighborhood. Completed in 1915, the Strand Hotel was at the center of one of the city's largest commercial districts and helps illustrate its history.

• Vesta Accumulator Company Building, 2100 S. Indiana Ave., Chicago

This building was the first purpose-built factory constructed for the Vesta Accumulator Company, a nationally known maker of batteries, head lamps and other automobile-related electrical parts. Vesta was an important player in the development of the automobile industry along Chicago's historic Motor Row, first establishing a presence on Michigan Avenue in 1905 alongside the city's earliest automobile dealerships.

• Walser House, Chicago

The Joseph J. Walser House was designed in 1903 by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). The house is a fine local example of an early Prairie School work in the Austin Community Area and displays architectural qualities that have come to be synonymous with Wright's work and that of his fellow Prairie School architects.

• West Argyle Street Historic District (Boundary Increase), Chicago

The West Argyle Historic District boundary was increased to include more of the properties associated with district's development following the establishment of the Argyle 'L' stop. The buildings are architecturally consistent with and enhance the architectural catalog of the district.

• West Loop-LaSalle Street Historic District, Chicago

The West Loop-LaSalle Street District is composed of the only remaining, cohesive collection of resources that represent and illustrate the development of Chicago's downtown commercial, office and governmental core, anchored by LaSalle Street, which served as the financial center of the Midwest. This district uniquely illustrates the rich architectural heritage of Chicago, representing a full range of architectural styles and demonstrating the changing technologies that allowed for taller and taller buildings.

DOWNSTATE

• Broadview Hotel, East St. Louis

The Broadview Hotel, completed in 1927, was built when East St. Louis was making over the city's architecture and political culture following a devastating 1917 race riot. This seven-story, Classical Revival, fireproof building was the city's largest and finest hotel. It fulfilled the developers’ vision of a hotel that would be a regional and statewide venue for conventions and meetings.

• Galena Historic District (boundary change), Galena

The Galena Historic District, which was listed in the National Register in 1969, represents the American experience between the years 1820 and 1930. That period in Galena history includes the first major mineral rush in U. S. history, the growth of the largest steamboat hub north of St. Louis, the development of a huge commercial center, the appearance of Ulysses S. Grant and the Civil War, and the subsequent decline of Galena into a local trade center. The district’s boundary was adjusted to better match Galena's story with available resources.

• Kickapoo Building, Peoria

The Kickapoo Building in Peoria, built in 1911, is an excellent example of a flatiron building. Flatiron buildings are designed to occupy all available land space created by angled street junctures, giving them a distinctive triangular shape that resembles an old-fashioned clothes iron.

• Macomb Courthouse Square Historic District, Macomb

The square is a rare example of the Harrisonburg Square, a type of courthouse square design with six access roads - four at the square’s corners and two in the middle. The buildings represent architectural styles from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. The district represents Macomb's evolution as the governmental and commercial center of McDonough County.

• Marshall Business Historic District, Marshall

The district is locally significant due to the development of Marshall in conjunction with the westward expansion of the United States through transportation. Marshall’s location along the National Road spurred development of the community, beginning in the 1820s. The commercial district is also significant for its architecture, a mix of Italianate, Romanesque, Commercial and Moderne.

• Ottawa East Side Historic District, Ottawa

The district has one of Ottawa's most diverse collections of high-style architecture, with a number of significant Greek Revival, Italianate and Queen Anne residences from the 19th century, and Prairie, Craftsman and Revival-style houses from the early 20th century. Located on a peninsula created by the Illinois and Fox Rivers, the district developed as an exclusively residential area and a prime location for the city's early professional class.

• Salem Baptist Church, Alton

Alton’s Salem Baptist Church was constructed in 1912 for an African-American congregation organized in 1819. Throughout the early to mid-20th century, Salem Baptist Church served as the local African-American community's center of social activities. The building supported community events, clubs, meetings and civil rights activities.

• Sheffield Village Hall, Sheffield

The Village Hall in Sheffield is significant as an excellent example of a building constructed in the Classical Revival style with Romanesque Revival influences. Characteristics of the Classical Revival style exhibited by the Village Hall include symmetrical facade arrangement, columns in antis, entablatures, cornices and Roman grilles.

• Zoe Theater, Pittsfield

Zoe Theatre is an excellent example of a building constructed in the Art Moderne style with Modernist influences. The principal characteristic of the Art Moderne style exhibited by the Zoe Theatre is the exterior facade of pigmented structural glass. The building's Modernist features include the visual front entrance underneath the canopy, and the interior finishes. The Zoe Theatre is the only architectural example of this kind in Pittsfield.