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 #16.
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.”
114 E. Main Street, H. A. Boyd Building, Date: 1892–“Contributing”
Description: This is a two-story brick building with unpainted red brick exterior. The storefront of the main elevation (south) is asymmetrical with a large angled display window (aluminum, center mullion), recessed glass and aluminum door (transom), and a rectangular display window at the west corner. The storefront is clad in random-coursed ashlar. The transom area is covered with vertical aluminum panels. Spanning the storefront is a shed-shaped striped fabric awning with returns and valances. The brick upper story with decorative coursework spans the adjacent building (112 E. Main.) The three windows are double-hung with stone sills and bracketed sheet-metal window hoods. At the top of the parapet is a richly detailed, galvanized sheet-metal cornice with brackets, finials, and a central pediment. The triangular pediment springs from a segmental arch and has the original owner’s name (H. A. Boyd) in relieved sans-serif letters, with the building’s date (1892) similarly executed in a small sheet-metal panel, between the cornice and window below. The rear elevation (north) has a deep setback and is unpainted brick, with segmental arch openings and non-historic doors and windows. There is also a modern quarter-turn staircase with a second-story balcony.
History: This structure was built by H. A. Boyd, concurrently with 112 E. Main. Historic functions included a meat market (Boyd’s, 1892-99; Central Meat Market, 1899-1910’s), dry goods and dress store (H. V. Pittenger, 1940’s), dry cleaners (Hub, 1950’s), and upstairs meeting hall (1899-1900’s) utilized most notably by the Knights of Pythias. The current tenant is Coplan Law Office.