The Morrison Historic Preservation Commission (MHPC) has applied 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 #53.
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.”
104 W. Main Street, Masonic Lodge Building, Date: 1898 –“Contributing”
Description: This is a two-story brick building with unpainted brick exterior. The main elevation (south) presents an asymmetrical storefront, with two slightly-recessed, glass and aluminum doors (first floor and upstairs) to the east ,and a continuous ribbon of raised display window boxes with alternating recesses to the west. The storefront is sheathed in precast quartz panels. Above the windows is a steeply-pitched, shallow, rigid awning with signs. Above the awning is a band of aluminum siding. The upper story is red brick with three recessed bays delineated by pilasters and a stepped corbel table. There are four window openings (two in center bay) with non-historic double-hung windows, stone sills, and galvanized sheet-metal window hoods (rectangular, bracketed, with triangular pediments in center bay.) East of the east window is an historic projecting sign for the fraternal organization, composed of steel pipe railing sections and three painted glass globes. At the top is a richly-ornamented, bracketed galvanized sheet-metal cornice, with a center rectangular pediment (frieze with “AF & AM” in individual letters.) Behind the cornice is a gable roof (1989.) The gable and the side elevation (west) are covered in vertical aluminum siding.
History: Erected for the Dunlap Lodge #321 at a cost of a little more than $5000 at the time, the first floor was originally intended as a storeroom, with the upper floor devoted to the hall. The building’s contractors included George Ritchie (excavation), Fred Meyer (foundation), Alex McKay (carpentry), and Dan Wood (painting.) Very soon after construction, however, the first floor became occupied by Reynolds and Smith Furniture. After 1917, Mr. McGilvray operated various variety, or “five and dime,” stores for nearly three decades. For another 18 years it housed a “Ben Franklin” establishment under different owners. In the 1980’s, the building housed a Harlan’s department store and an appliance center. It was also vacant for a period of time. In 1991, it became Quinn’s Jewelry which it remains to the present.