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 #59.
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.”
113 W. Main Street, Date: c. 1860, c. 1970 –Contributing
Description: This is a three-story, brick building with painted brick exterior. The storefront of the main elevation (north) has been modernized and features a slightly-recessed, unglazed modern door, flanked by aluminum display windows and pargeted bulkheads and transoms. To the west of the storefront, separated by a continuous masonry pilaster, is the upstairs entrance, consisting of an unglazed modern door topped by a two-light transom. The upper façade has four double-hung windows on the second floor and three on the third. Most openings retain their segmental arch tops, but have been infilled with smaller windows and vertical wood siding. A significantly enlarged opening, a former angled glass front for a photography studio, has been since infilled with wood and two much smaller windows. It extends from the third story sill to the top of the building, disrupting the corbel table with semi-circular arches and the sheet-metal cornice. The pargeted rear elevation (south) has four bays separated by continuous pilasters and a corbel table with semi-circular arches. The window and door openings are a mixture of historic and modern materials, infill, and utilities.
History: This building is attributed to Horace Hinkson as builder and constructed at the same time as 111 W. Main Street. The building’s upper stories housed photography studios from at least 1892 through 1941, including one operated by Fred W. Barnum from the 1890’s until the 1940’s. The street level floor had been a dry goods store, boots and shoes store, a saloon, a telegraph company, four different meat markets from 1916 through 1942, a paint store, three different grocery store operations from 1948 through 1972, and then seven different saloons–including its present tenant, KJ’s Bar & Grill.