{"nrhp_refnum":"09000898","name":"Garvey, Hugh M., House","other_names":["Garvey-Ferry House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"8 Fair Oaks Dr.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Leland Grove","county":"Sangamon County","state":"IL","lat":39.78392443300004,"lon":-89.68743427599998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2009-11-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story single-family house at 8 Fair Oaks Drive in Leland Grove, on the west side of Springfield, Illinois, designed by John Benya in 1956 and completed in 1959.","why_significant":"The house is significant under Criterion C as a well-preserved, fully developed example of the International Style applied to domestic architecture. It was designed unusually early for Springfield, where the style was rarely used for private homes before the mid-1960s. It shows the influence of Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House and represents the work of Quincy architect John Benya.","narrative":"Set on a wooded lot of about one acre in Leland Grove, this two-story house was designed by Quincy architect John Benya in 1956 and first occupied in Easter week 1959. Its flat, coffered concrete roof extends in a deep overhang, and steel columns, floor-to-ceiling glass and panels of concrete and oversized antique brick form the walls. Inside, kitchen, bathrooms and bedroom corridor sit in a central core, leaving the perimeter open to views. Floor panels carry heated air from the furnace to perimeter ducts. The design draws on Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House, while the textured brick softens the strict International Style. Springfield-area houses of the period mostly followed traditional revival designs, so this early modernist example stands out. Benya designed more than 200 buildings between 1950 and 1989. The house retains its original character, and its landscape, planned by Charles Aguar, survives in altered form after the widening of Chatham Road in the 1970s.","period_of_significance":"1959","architect_builder":"John Benya","architectural_style":"Modern movement: International Style/Miesian","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Still used as a single dwelling; described as meticulously maintained, with nearly all interior finishes original to 1959.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.79427-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/22/8940/28894022/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/09000898.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/09000898/05627f940a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/09000898/05627f940a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Boscophotos","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Image_The_Garvey_House.jpeg\" rel=\"noopener\">Boscophotos</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:Image_The_Garvey_House.jpeg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28894022","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_M._Garvey_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19461917"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/sangamon-county/garvey-hugh-m-house-09000898/"}