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 #17.
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.”
116-118 E. Main Street, Snyder & Clark Building, Date: 1894–“Contributing”
Description: This is a two-story brick building with dark, red brick exterior. The main elevation (south) is symmetrical with two storefronts flanking an upstairs entrance in the center, framed by end brick piers with carved limestone bases, capitals, and bands. The west storefront (116 E. Main) consists of a flush glass and aluminum door with transom and full sidelights, flanked by large aluminum display windows with concrete/pargeted bulkheads (square grid, painted.) The storefront transom is aluminum with obscured glass. Above the storefront is a shed-shaped striped fabric awning with returns and valances. The east storefront (118 E. Main) is very similar, but with black structural glass bulkheads below the display windows and recessed aluminum bulkheads under the sidelights. The awning spans past the storefront to the west, above the upstairs entrance (cast iron sill/step, two cast iron columns, non-historic door.) Spanning the width of the elevation above the storefronts is a steel lintel with rosettes and a decorative sheet-metal lintel cornice with end brackets. The upper story has a central recessed plane of red brick framed by end pilasters, with a stone block and a stepped brick courses above. Within this plane are seven rectangular window openings with limestone sills and window hoods. The windows themselves are double-hung replacements, except for the narrower center window which is historic wood. At the top of the parapet is a bracketed, galvanized sheet-metal cornice with a center semicircular pediment. The rear elevation (north) has two wings of unequal setback. The west wing is an addition (early 1900’s) with a slight setback, painted brick with segmental arch openings at each story (mixture of non-historic and infill.) The side elevations of the west wing are exposed and are unpainted brick, with small segmental arch window openings (west) and an exterior staircase enclosed with vertical metal siding (east.) The east wing has a deep setback with unpainted brick wall, several segmental arch openings, and a mixture of historic and modern materials, infill, and utilities.
History: Original tenants were John Clark’s Board of Trade Grocery and J. H. Snyder & Co. Drug Store. The building has housed such varied uses as a dry goods store (1890’s-1930’s), another drug store (Boyd, 1903-39), women’s clothing stores (1927-94), and men’s clothing stores (1961-91.) The upper story functions included a post of the Grand Army of the Republic and its auxiliary, the Women’s Relief Corps; a lodge for the Knights of Pythias and its auxiliary, the Pythian Sisters (1910’s-40’s); dentists’ offices (1915-56.) The current tenants are Edward Jones Investments and, the most recent in a series of realtors, Kophamer & Blean Realty.