{"nrhp_refnum":"73000717","name":"Creole House","other_names":["See Also:French Colonial Historic District"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Market St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Prairie du Rocher","county":"Randolph County","state":"IL","lat":38.08616277700003,"lon":-90.09455930999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-04-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story log and frame house on Market Street in Prairie du Rocher, Randolph County, Illinois. The south half dates to about 1800 and the north half was added about 1858.","why_significant":"The nomination cites architectural significance as one of the few remaining examples of vernacular French building in this part of the Mississippi Valley. It is also the birthplace of Henry Clay Hansbrough, later a U.S. Senator from North Dakota.","narrative":"Creole House is a one-story dwelling on Market Street in Prairie du Rocher, Illinois. Its south half, built about 1800, uses vertical logs set on a stone foundation in the French palisade manner. About 1858 a frame north wing of stud-wall construction was added, roughly doubling the building's length and making it a double house. The whole was covered with siding, and a low-pitched roof extends outward to form a porch along its full length. Inside, the walls are plaster and the rooms are simple, with wooden-mantel fireplaces in the living rooms. The house is valued as one of the few surviving examples of vernacular French building characteristic of the Mississippi Valley, as described by architectural writer Frederick Koeper. It is also the birthplace of Henry Clay Hansbrough, born there in 1848, who became North Dakota's first congressman and later served eighteen years as a U.S. Senator. The house is recorded in the Historic American Buildings Survey.","period_of_significance":"19th Century (specific date ca. 1800)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"French-Canadian vertical log (palisade) construction, with a later frame addition","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as fairly well preserved, altered by doubling in length, and in fair condition; owned by the Randolph County Historical Society.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.150774-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/37/8939/28893937/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/73000717.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73000717/36dbbb20f8-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73000717/36dbbb20f8-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Creole_House_in_Prairie_du_Rocher.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Creole_House_in_Prairie_du_Rocher.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893937","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5184203"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/randolph-county/creole-house-73000717/"}