{"nrhp_refnum":"02001387","name":"Motor Row Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by 22nd St., Indiana St., 24th Place, and Wabash St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicago","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":41.85296560100005,"lon":-87.62400471409708,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2002-11-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic commercial district on Chicago's Near South Side, covering the 2200-2400 blocks of South Michigan Avenue and parts of adjacent Wabash and Indiana Avenues between Cermak Road and the Stevenson Expressway. It holds early automobile showrooms and related buildings, mostly built 1909-1915.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the district is the largest extant collection of intact early automobile showrooms in the United States, illustrating how showroom and auto-service buildings evolved from 1909 into the 1930s. It also shows the work of many prominent Chicago architects, including Holabird & Roche, Alfred Alschuler and Albert Kahn, who helped develop a new building type.","narrative":"Motor Row is a three-block stretch of Chicago's Near South Side, centered on South Michigan Avenue between Cermak Road and the Stevenson Expressway, with parts of Wabash and Indiana Avenues. It contains dozens of brick and terra cotta buildings put up mostly between 1909 and 1915 to sell, service and store automobiles. Built to the sidewalk edge with large display windows, the showrooms form a nearly continuous streetwall. Designs range from simple Chicago School facades to Renaissance Revival, Spanish Revival, Sullivanesque and Moderne examples. Architects included Holabird & Roche, Alfred Alschuler, Jenney, Mundie & Jensen, and Albert Kahn, whose Cadillac service building is described as his only intact industrial work remaining in Chicago. The district was listed for its commercial history and its architecture. It is described as the largest surviving collection of early automobile showrooms in the country, showing how this building type developed through the 1930s. Upper floors are largely intact, while altered ground-level storefronts are considered reversible.","period_of_significance":"1909-1936","architect_builder":"Christian Eckstorm, Holabird & Roche, Alfred Alschuler, Jenney, Mundie & Jensen, Albert Kahn, Jarvis Hunt, Phillip Maher, Melvin A. Nelson, and others","architectural_style":"Commercial Style, Moderne, Spanish Revival, Sullivanesque, Renaissance Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Buildings remain generally intact, though many ground floors have been altered and windows filled or back-painted. Current uses include business, specialty stores and multiple dwellings. Several vacant lots lie within the district.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.016573-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/60/8909/28890960/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/02001387.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02001387/41d8c523ef-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02001387/41d8c523ef-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Andrew Jameson","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Motor_Row_Historic_District_J_Chicago_IL.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Andrew Jameson</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Motor_Row_Historic_District_J_Chicago_IL.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28890960","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_Row_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6918152"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/motor-row-historic-district-02001387/"}