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 #29.
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.”
208 E. Main Street, Date: c 1890–“Contributing”
Description: This is a two-story brick building with painted brick exterior. The storefront of the main elevation (south) has end brick piers, a center recessed entrance (smaller replacement door within historic frame with blocked transom), wood display window sash with bulkheads and transoms, cast-iron storefront sill (maker’s mark reads “Vierling, McDowell & Co, Chicago”), and two round, decorative cast-iron columns. A third rectangular cast-iron column separates the storefront from the upstairs entrance to the west (smaller replacement paneled door with infill and transom.) Above the storefront is an exposed steel lintel. The upper story has three rectangular window openings with stone sills, wood double-hung windows, and pedimented sheet-metal window hoods. A bracketed, galvanized, sheet-metal cornice is at the top. Behind the cornice is a non-historic gable roof with a vinyl-sided front gable. The side elevation (east) is painted brick with a pargeted parapet, two small rectangular first story window openings, and a non-historic advertisement/sign panel near the southeast corner.
History: Originally it was a grocery (Leroy Talcott, 1890’s) and later offices (1910’s), printing (1920’s), and a photography studio (1940’s.) Attorney L. T. Stocking purchased the building in 1898 and moved his offices here from the Whiteside Sentinel Building in 1900. From 1954 to 2011 the building was occupied by the VFW. The current tenant is Hero’s Tap.