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 #20.
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.”
124 E. Main Street, Date: 1882–“Contributing”
Description: This is a two-story brick building with painted brick exterior. The storefront of the main elevation (south) has a central recessed entrance (glass and aluminum) with a concrete ramp, flanked by aluminum display windows atop porcelain panel bulkheads (painted.) Upstairs entrance is to the east (altered, mixture of historic and non-historic materials.) Above the storefront is a shed-shaped striped fabric awning with returns and valances, identical to 122 E. Main. Transom zone above the awning is covered with a long, framed, wood panel with a sign. The upper story has four semicircular arch window openings with historic wood double-hung windows, stone sills, and bracketed sheet-metal window hoods in the arches. A wood cornice with scrollwork brackets spans the top of the parapet and continues along the adjacent building to the east (126 E. Main.) The rear elevation (north) has a slight setback and consists of unpainted red brick laid in a common bond, with mostly blocked segmental arch openings.
History: The building’s early function was a saloon (1880’s-1900’s) and later a drug store (Peterson’s, 1950’s.) The current tenant is Fitzgerald Pharmacy.