The Nachusa House is a former hotel building in Dixon, Illinois, United States along Galena Avenue (Illinois Route 26). The building was constructed in 1853 and operated continuously as a hotel until 1988. It underwent many alterations during the time it operated as a hotel. Following its period as a hotel the five-story mansard roofed building fell into disrepair and was nearly demolished in 1997. The building was restored by the Illinois Housing Development Authority and a Chicago developer at a cost of US$3.2 million and renovated into affordable housing for senior citizens. During its height the Nachusa House was a popular stop along rail and stagecoach lines and was a known layover for Abraham Lincoln. The Nachusa House was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a refrigerator and other kitchen facilities, upholstered chairs, a flat screen television, and en-suite bathrooms. Small, lower-priced hotels may offer only the most basic guest services and facilities. Larger, higher-priced hotels may provide additional guest facilities such as a swimming pool, business centre, childcare, conference and event facilities, tennis or basketball courts, gymnasium, restaurants, day spa, and social function services. Hotel rooms are usually numbered to allow guests to identify their room. Some boutique, high-end hotels have custom decorated rooms. Some hotels offer meals as part of a room and board arrangement. In the United Kingdom, a hotel is required by law to serve food and drinks to all guests within certain stated hours. In Japan, capsule hotels provide a tiny room suitable only for sleeping and shared bathroom facilities.
Dixon is a city and the county seat of Lee County, Illinois, United States. The population was 15,733 as of the 2010 census, down from 15,941 in 2000. The city is named after founder John Dixon, who operated a rope ferry service across Rock River, which runs through the city. The Illinois General Assembly designated Dixon as "Petunia Capital of Illinois" in 1999 and "The Catfish Capital of Illinois" in 2009.
Illinois is a state in the Midwestern and Great Lakes region of the United States. It has the fifth largest gross domestic product (GDP), the sixth largest population, and the 25th largest land area of all U.S. states. Illinois is often noted as a microcosm of the entire United States. With Chicago in northeastern Illinois, small industrial cities and immense agricultural productivity in the north and center of the state, and natural resources such as coal, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a diverse economic base, and is a major transportation hub. Chicagoland, Chicago's metropolitan area, encompasses over 65% of the state's population. The Port of Chicago connects the state to international ports via two main routes: from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois Waterway to the Illinois River. The Mississippi River, the Ohio River, and the Wabash River form parts of the boundaries of Illinois. For decades, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport has been ranked as one of the world's busiest airports. Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and, through the 1980s, in politics.
The Nachusa House was first conceived in 1837 by John Dixon, the founder of Dixon, Illinois, and a group of early settlers when they returned from a trip to the then-state capital of Vandalia. While in Vandalia the group had pushed the state legislature for a charter to establish the Dixon Hotel Company. Money was raised and a foundation laid in 1838 but the Panic of 1837 put a halt to the project.[2]
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally from a sedentary culture, as opposed to nomads who share and rotate their settlements with little or no concept of individual land ownership. Settlements are often built on land already claimed or owned by another group. Many times settlers are backed by governments or large countries. They also sometimes leave in search of religious freedom.
Vandalia is a city in Fayette County, Illinois, United States. At the 2010 Census, the population was 7,042. Vandalia is 69 miles (111 km) northeast of St. Louis, on the Kaskaskia River. It served as the state capital of Illinois from 1819 until 1839, when the seat of state government moved to the current capital of Springfield. Vandalia was for years the western terminus of the National Road.
The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major recession that lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down while unemployment went up. Pessimism abounded during the time. The panic had both domestic and foreign origins. Speculative lending practices in western states, a sharp decline in cotton prices, a collapsing land bubble, international specie flows, and restrictive lending policies in Great Britain were all to blame. On May 10, 1837, banks in New York City suspended specie payments, meaning that they would no longer redeem commercial paper in specie at full face value. Despite a brief recovery in 1838, the recession persisted for approximately seven years. Banks collapsed, businesses failed, prices declined, and thousands of workers lost their jobs. Unemployment may have been as high as 25% in some locales. The years 1837 to 1844 were, generally speaking, years of deflation in wages and prices.
The Nachusa House was finally constructed in 1853 as a four-story limestone building with simple wooden lintel and sill windows. The structure is perched on a hilltop overlooking the Rock River, directly across the street from the Lee County Courthouse. The hotel gets its unique name from John Dixon. "Na-Chu-Sa" was the name area Native Americans gave to Dixon, meaning "head white hair".[3] During its first years, the early 1850s, the hotel was primarily a stopover on the stagecoach routes from Chicago to Galena, and Peoria. When the railroad came to the city of Dixon in 1855 the Nachusa House grew in popularity with stagecoach travelers as well as those traveling via rail. The Nachusa House layout can be divided into three main components, the main building, the south annex and the west annex.[3]
Limestone is a carbonate sedimentary rock that is often composed of the skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, foraminifera, and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). A closely related rock is dolomite, which contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite, CaMg(CO3)2. In fact, in old USGS publications, dolomite was referred to as magnesian limestone, a term now reserved for magnesium-deficient dolomites or magnesium-rich limestones.
A lintel or lintol is a structural horizontal block that spans the space or opening between two vertical supports. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. It is often found over portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. In the case of windows, the bottom span is instead referred to as a sill, but, unlike a lintel, does not serve to bear a load to ensure the integrity of the wall. Modern day lintels are made using prestressed concrete and are also referred to as beams in beam and block slabs or ribs in rib and block slabs. These prestressed concrete lintels and blocks are components that are packed together and propped to form a suspended floor concrete slab.
A sill plate or sole plate in construction and architecture is the bottom horizontal member of a wall or building to which vertical members are attached. The word plate is typically omitted in America and carpenters speak simply of the "sill". Other names are ground plate, ground sill, groundsel, and midnight sill. Sill plates are usually composed of lumber but can be any material. The timber at the top of a wall is often called a top plate, pole plate, wall plate or simply "the plate".
The Nachusa House can be divided into three components, the main building, the south annex and the west annex.
The past commercial success of Nachusa House is reflected through the many changes to its design. The first addition to the hotel was in 1854 when the old west annex was added, this four story, 60 room structure was demolished during the 1950s and rebuilt as it appears today.[3] In 1868 the mansard roof and fifth floor were added to the building; both features were important in solidifying the hotel's image as a first class hotel. Other architectural details were added and removed through the years, including the addition of a thin coat of stucco in the 1880s. In 1914 the building's south annex was added, though it was essentially gutted during the 1950s and very little of the original 1914 structure remains.[3]
A mansard or mansard roof is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterized by two slopes on each of its sides with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The steep roof with windows creates an additional floor of habitable space, and reduces the overall height of the roof for a given number of habitable stories. The upper slope of the roof may not be visible from street level when viewed from close proximity to the building.
Stucco or render is a material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture. Stucco may be used to cover less visually appealing construction materials, such as metal, concrete, cinder block, or clay brick and adobe.
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are currently 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory and shares its sovereignty with the federal government. Due to this shared sovereignty, Americans are citizens both of the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons restricted by certain types of court orders. Four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names.
The Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois -- also known as Landmarks Illinois -- is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1971 to prevent the demolition of the Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan designed Chicago Stock Exchange Building. Although this effort failed the organization has grown to become a 2000-member statewide voice for historic preservation.
The $3.2 million restoration project was paid for, in part, through the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program, commonly known as Housing Credits. The program, which dates to 1986, is the primary federal affordable housing resource. The restoration of the building began in 1997, by September there were already names on a waiting list for the 35 apartment units and by 1998 residents were occupying the spaces.[6]
An apartment, flat or unit is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building, generally on a single storey. There are many names for these overall buildings, see below. The housing tenure of apartments also varies considerably, from large-scale public housing, to owner occupancy within what is legally a condominium, to tenants renting from a private landlord.
Architecture
The Nachusa House's main, nearly square, building forms the centerpiece of the present-day structure. The main building is the most historically and architecturally significant portion of Nachusa House.[3] Nachusa House's main construction occurred in 1853 and 1868. The 1853 portion of the building stands upon the limestone foundation, laid in 1838. It was built as a four-story limestone building with 2 foot (.6 m) thick walls and wood framed floor and roof construction; originally the limestone walls were undressed. In 1868 the second period of construction on Nachusa House added the fifth floor, mansard roof, and now removed cupola. These alterations established the image that became iconic of the hotel.[3]
After 1868 the building continued to evolve, stucco was added to the stone walls in the 1880s and seventy years later wrought iron grill work was added to the balconies and porches. Galena Avenue was widened in 1965 forcing the removal of the original front stairs which led to the lobby porch.[3]
Significance
The Nachusa House is considered a "prized landmark" in Dixon, Illinois.
As early as 1878-1879 commentators noted the Nachusa House as one of Dixon's most substantial and eye-catching buildings. The building possesses significance of a social, commercial and architectural nature and was called a "prized landmark" in the 1983 National Register of Historic Places nomination form and the building was added to the National Register on February 10, 1983.[1][3] The 1974 Illinois Historic Sites Survey cited the structure as "probably" the oldest in Dixon as well as for its commercial and political, significance, the latter because of its guest list.[7]
Throughout its history, the hotel hosted notable guests including U.S. PresidentsAbraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, William Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt and President of the Confederate States of AmericaJefferson Davis.[3] Lincoln stayed at the Nachusa House numerous times and generally occupied the same room.[2] A Lincoln room was established in his honor within the hotel during its later years, the room was furnished much as it was when Lincoln stayed at the hotel.[2] The balcony outside the room was known to be a place where Lincoln would sit and socialize.[4] The room has since been converted into an apartment.[4]
The Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home is the house located at 816 South Hennepin Avenue, Dixon, Illinois, in which the 40th President of the United States Ronald Reagan lived as a youth beginning in 1920. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The Ulysses S. Grant Home in Galena, Illinois is the former home of Ulysses S. Grant, the Civil War general and later 18th President of the United States. The home was designed by William Dennison and constructed in 1859 - 1860. The home was given to Grant by residents of Galena in 1865 as thanks for his war service, and has been maintained as a memorial to Grant since 1904.
The Haish Memorial Library was designed by Chicago architects White and Weber and built in the art deco style of the 1930s with funds left to the library by Jacob Haish in his 1928 will. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The John Deere House and Shop is located in the unincorporated village of Grand Detour, Illinois, near the Lee County city of Dixon. The site is known as the location where the first steel plow was invented by John Deere in 1837. The site includes Deere's house, a replica of his original blacksmith shop, a gift shop, and an archaeological exhibit showing the excavation site of his original blacksmith shop. The Deere House and Shop is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; it joined that list in 1966, the year the Register was established. Prior to that, it was designated a National Historic Landmark on July 19, 1964.
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant. Government agencies, at the state, national, and local level in the United States, have differing definitions of what constitutes a contributing property but there are common characteristics. Local laws often regulate the changes that can be made to contributing structures within designated historic districts. The first local ordinances dealing with the alteration of buildings within historic districts was in Charleston, South Carolina in 1931.
The Pettengill–Morron House, or Morron House, is a house located in the American city of Peoria, Illinois. The 1868 mansion was originally built for Moses Pettengill, a hardware store owner who came to Peoria from New Hampshire in 1833. When Pettengill arrived in Peoria there were 150 people, 30 log cabins and three frame houses.
The William H. Copeland House is a home located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. In 1909 the home underwent a remodeling designed by famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The original, Italianate home was built in the 1870s. Dr. William H. Copeland commissioned Wright for the remodel and Wright's original vision of the project proposed a three-story Prairie house. That version was rejected and the result was the more subdued, less severely Prairie, William H. Copeland House. On the exterior the most significant alteration by Wright was the addition of a low-pitched hip roof. The house has been listed as a contributing property to a U.S. Registered Historic District since 1973.
The Francis J. Woolley House is located in Oak Park, Illinois, United States, a Chicago suburb. The house was designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1893. The Queen Anne style home is reflective of Wright's early designs for lower-cost, more affordable housing. The Woolley House is similar to the trio of homes in Oak Park that are widely known as the "bootleg houses." The design is heavily influenced by Wright's first teacher, Joseph Silsbee, and the Arts and Crafts movement. The house is listed as a contributing property to a local and federal historic district.
The Stephen Wright House is a home located in the Lee County, Illinois, United States, village of Paw Paw. The Queen Anne style home was constructed sometime between 1895 and 1906 by Paw Paw real estate speculator Stephen Wright. Located along a former Native American trail and stagecoach line, the home is in an area of very similar Queen Anne style homes which may have also been built by Wright. Wright had left the property by 1906 and sold the property to another Paw Paw resident who stayed in the house until his death. The Stephen Wright House was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on May 22, 2005.
The Illinois Central Stone Arch Railroad Bridges are a trio of limestone railroad bridges in the city of Dixon, Illinois, United States. The bridges were constructed between 1852 and 1855 as the Illinois Central Railroad laid its first rail lines across the state of Illinois. They were designed by Robert F. Laing for Laing and Douglas Construction Company, a railroad company contractor during the 1850s. Though each limestone bridge is similar in design, they each have different clearances ranging between 12 and 15 feet. The bridges remained in use by the railroad until 1985, and the three bridges were added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
The Batavia Depot Museum is a museum in Batavia, Illinois that was once the town's primary train station. It was the first of many depots built by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 as the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad Depot.
The Plano Stone Church, also known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was constructed in 1868 to serve as the headquarters for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS) under the leadership of Joseph Smith III. Smith moved to Plano, Illinois, in 1866 and in 1867 was appointed head of the Stone Church's building committee. Smith and the committee selected the site, design and builder for the structure. The Plano Stone Church served as the headquarters of the RLDS from its completion in 1868 until Smith, his family, and the church moved to Lamoni, Iowa, in 1881.
The Elihu Benjamin Washburne House, also known as the Washburne-Sheehan House, is a 11⁄2-story Greek Revival house located at 908 Third Street in Galena, Illinois. Constructed in 1844–45, the building was built for and owned by Elihu Benjamin Washburne, a prominent Galena lawyer who served in Congress during the American Civil War, and as Secretary of State and Minister to France under President Ulysses S. Grant, another famous Galenian. The Washburne House was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The Old Stone Hotel, also known as the Warren Community Building or Warren House Hotel, was constructed in 1851 as a stagecoach station. It was located closely to the crossing of two stagecoach routes near the Illinois-Wisconsin border in the village of Warren, Illinois, United States. The building was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
The Galena Historic District is a historic district located in the city of Galena, Illinois, USA. The historic district encompasses 85 percent of the city of Galena and includes more than 800 properties. The downtown area consists of three successive tiers made up of Main, Bench and Prospect Streets. Within the boundaries of the district are such notable homes as the Ulysses S. Grant Home and the Elihu B. Washburne House. The Galena Historic District was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1969.
Washington Park Historic District, also known as Washington Square is a historic district in and around Washington Park in the city of Ottawa, Illinois, United States. Washington Park was the site of the first Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 and is surrounded by several historic structures. The park was platted in 1831 and the historic district was added to the United States National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The Landmark Inn State Historic Site is a historic inn in Castroville, Texas, United States. It serves the general public as both a state historic site and a bed & breakfast with eight overnight rooms.
The Dorilton is a luxury residential housing cooperative in Manhattan, New York City. Construction began in 1900 and was completed by 1902.
The Galena Hotel, originally known as the Fox River House, is a historic hotel in Aurora, Illinois. It is the oldest hotel still standing in the city.
The Spring Valley House–Sulfur Springs Hotel is a historic former hotel located along Dee Bennett Road in rural Utica Township, LaSalle County, Illinois. Built circa 1849, the hotel is unusually large for a rural hotel of the area. The brick and limestone building, which features Greek Revival elements and vernacular stonework, is four stories tall and 63 by 42 feet in area. Its size is likely a result of it serving two different audiences; due to its proximity to the Illinois River and a major stagecoach line, it hosted travelers passing through the area, but it also functioned as a resort destination due to the area's hot springs. Three such springs are located on the site of the hotel, one of which has a spring house built over it. The opening of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad through the area doomed the hotel, as stagecoach and river travel declined dramatically, and it closed after 1862.
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