{"nrhp_refnum":"05000603","name":"Town House, The","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"718 7th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Springfield","county":"Sangamon County","state":"IL","lat":39.79637866600007,"lon":-89.64648484699995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2005-06-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Town House is a 13-story International Style luxury apartment building at 718-720 South Seventh Street in Springfield, Illinois, completed in 1958 for the Franklin Life Insurance Company. It includes a garden, parking lot, underground garage, and gatehouse.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is a distinctive example of Modern Movement/International Style multi-family housing, designed by the Chicago firm Shaw, Metz and Dolio with a garden attributed to Franz Lipp. It retains exceptional integrity, including lobby, Colonnade Room, furnishings, and apartment fittings. It also reflects Franklin Life's ambitions to build a high-end urban residence tied to national apartment trends.","narrative":"Rising thirteen stories above South Seventh Street in Springfield, Illinois, this apartment building was completed in 1958 for the Franklin Life Insurance Company. Designed by the Chicago firm Shaw, Metz and Dolio, it is an L-shaped International Style composition of interlocking volumes in limestone, steel ribbon windows, and buff brick, set on a base of aqua-blue glazed brick. The complex also includes an underground garage, a gatehouse, concrete perimeter walls, and a geometric terraced garden, likely designed by Franz Lipp. Inside, the lobby has book-matched marble walls, terrazzo floors, brass fixtures, and red glass-tiled columns, while the Colonnade Room is paneled in oak. Its 87 apartments kept many original kitchens, bathrooms, and fittings, and much original furniture survives. The building is notable as a high-quality Modernist residence, built at a cost well above comparable Chicago luxury apartments, and for its remarkably intact design and furnishings.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Shaw, Metz and Dolio (architects); garden likely by Franz Lipp","architectural_style":"Modern Movement/International Style","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still in use as multiple dwellings (87 apartment units); interiors largely intact, with some changes such as replacement of marble column cladding in 2000 and garden paving in 1995.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.35529-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/30/8914/28891430/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/05000603.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05000603/5c3853f3b9-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05000603/5c3853f3b9-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Teemu08","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Town_House_Springfield_IL.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Teemu08</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:Town_House_Springfield_IL.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28891430","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_House_(Springfield,_Illinois)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q20710378"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/sangamon-county/town-house-the-05000603/"}