The Morrison Historic Preservation Commission (MHPC) is applying to nominate an appropriate portion of the community’s commercial district to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. With the assistance of our consultants, the MHPC has spent months researching and writing the substance of our application. In the hopes that the community will find the information contained therein both interesting and informative, we will be running, one at a time, in no particular order, over the next year, the architectural and historical description of each building included. We hope you enjoy installment #18.
Note: The National Register of Historic Places is literally a listing of spaces, structures or areas recognized to be of National historic, cultural or architectural importance. It is kept by the United States Department of Interior, but the program is largely administered by an individual state’s preservation authority. In Illinois, this is the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. The term “contributing” means that the structure lies within an historic district and adds to the architectural or historic significance of the same as a whole. If it is within the boundaries of the district, but does not so supplement, it is deemed “non-contributing.”
120 E. Main Street, Date: c. 1875, c. 1890–“Contributing”
Description: This is a two-story brick building with painted brick exterior. The main elevation (south) was altered c. 1890; it is symmetrical with a deeply-recessed arcaded storefront. It has end brick piers; decorative wrought steel framing by Love Bros., Aurora, IL; wood panels in the bulkheads; glass and wood door; a paneled ceiling. Above the windows is a shed-shaped, striped fabric awning with returns and valances. Above the awning is a steel lintel with rosettes. The upper story has two window openings with historic, wood double-hung windows, stone sills, and sheet-metal window hoods with brackets and pediments. At the top of the parapet is a bracketed galvanized sheet-metal cornice. The rear elevation (north) is painted concrete block with a center door at each story (steel, unglazed.) The parapet is stepped with terra cotta coping. The side elevations of the rear wing are exposed; they are pargeted with one blocked window opening (west.)
History: The original use was Oscar Woods’s retail establishment. From the 1880’s until 1925 it was a hardware, agricultural implements, and tin shop, known as Woods & Whitcomb (1890’s) and from 1915 as Oscar Woods & Son Hardware. For the next three decades it served largely as a grocery, until it became Renkes Paint Store (1954-1989.) The current tenant is Carpet House, Inc.