{"nrhp_refnum":"02000845","name":"Karcher Hotel","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"405 Washington St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Waukegan","county":"Lake County","state":"IL","lat":42.361303071000066,"lon":-87.83302722199994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2002-08-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A nine-story, 150-room hotel at 405 Washington Street in Waukegan, Lake County, Illinois, at the southwest corner of Washington Street and Martin Luther King Avenue (formerly Utica Street). It was built in 1927-28 with steel-frame construction and brick and terra cotta facades.","why_significant":"The form presents it as one of only two pre-1960 hotels in Waukegan with enough integrity to show the role hotels played in the city's commercial and community life. It is a clear example of the three-part vertical commercial block with Classical Revival terra cotta ornament. Its exterior retains original massing, patterned brickwork and all of its terra cotta, and enough of the interior survived a 1984 fire to allow restoration.","narrative":"Rising nine stories above the corner of Washington Street and Martin Luther King Avenue in downtown Waukegan, this 150-room hotel was built in 1927-28 to serve both travelers and the local community. It was planned with offices, shops and a restaurant alongside guest rooms, and it offered a lobby with a fireplace, a mezzanine lounge, a billiard room with a mural and a banquet room. The steel-frame building follows the three-part vertical block pattern: a light grey terra cotta base, a shaft of variegated red brick, and a terra cotta cornice and parapet. Classical Revival ornament such as egg and dart molding, dentils and anthemions appears in low relief. Its location near the courthouse, post office and railroad station suited the needs of the day. A fire in 1984 damaged the interior and the ground-floor storefronts, yet the exterior massing, brickwork and terra cotta survive, along with the fireplace, staircase and a wrought iron mezzanine balustrade. It is listed as one of the few surviving early hotels in the city.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals/Classical Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Current function listed as vacant/not in use; interior damaged by a 1984 fire; storefronts altered; rehabilitation planned following the Secretary of the Interior's Standards.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.687388-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/66/8933/28893366/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/02000845.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000845/3b71ff4972-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000845/3b71ff4972-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Former_Karcher_Hotel_in_2006_-_Waukegan,_Illinois.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Former_Karcher_Hotel_in_2006_-_Waukegan,_Illinois.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893366","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karcher_Hotel","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q87334161"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/lake-county/karcher-hotel-02000845/"}