{"nrhp_refnum":"72000461","name":"Rose Hotel","other_names":["McFarlan's Tavern"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"S. Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Elizabethtown","county":"Hardin County","state":"IL","lat":37.44519746700007,"lon":-88.30437044199994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1972-12-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A hotel building, originally McFarlan's Tavern, on a limestone bluff above the Ohio River on South Main Street in the village of Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Illinois. The oldest part is said to date to 1812, with additions made through the 19th century.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it one of the oldest structures in Illinois and, until it closed about two years before the nomination, the oldest hotel in continuous operation in the same building in the state. It served riverboat and overland travelers, and its architecture blends Eastern Colonial and Georgian influences with French-style features in lower Illinois. A court decision over bluff ownership after the 1913 Ohio River flood has also been widely cited.","narrative":"Perched on a limestone bluff above the Ohio River in Elizabethtown, Illinois, the Rose Hotel began as McFarlan's Tavern, a two-story, two-room building of grey brick said to have been built in 1812 by James McFarlan, an early settler and the town's founder. That original structure, with walls a foot thick, now serves as the hotel lobby and office. Additions followed: four rooms in 1848, a dining room in 1865, a two-story porch and stairway in 1866, and a display room for traveling salesmen in 1881. A pavilion on the bluff was built in 1882. The design echoes Colonial and Georgian houses of the East, combined with French-influenced porch forms. For decades the hotel served riverboat passengers and wagon travelers carrying salt. The 1913 flood led to a lawsuit over bluff ownership whose ruling has been cited in later cases. It was considered the oldest hotel in continuous operation in one building in Illinois until it closed.","period_of_significance":"19th Century (specific date given as ca. 1812-1820)","architect_builder":"James McFarlan (said to have built the original house in 1812)","architectural_style":"Simplified combination of Eastern types recalling early Colonial and Georgian, with French Mississippi Valley features in the 1866 porch","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition marked good and altered; the form lists a hotel use, but the text says the hotel closed about two years earlier, and reviewers noted the conflict.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.346754-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/62/8929/28892962/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/72000461.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000461/06c411a747-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000461/06c411a747-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rose_Hotel_in_Elizabethtown.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rose_Hotel_in_Elizabethtown.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892962","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Hotel_(Elizabethtown,_Illinois)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7367800"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/hardin-county/rose-hotel-72000461/"}