{"nrhp_refnum":"76000710","name":"Fox River House","other_names":["Galena Hotel"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"166 W. Galena","address_restricted":false,"city":"Aurora","county":"Kane County","state":"IL","lat":41.75898771900006,"lon":-88.31772608099999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-05-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story brick hotel at 116 West Galena Street in Aurora, Kane County, Illinois, rebuilt in 1862 after an earlier hotel on the lot burned in 1860. It has been known as the Fox River House, Northwestern Hotel, Grand Hotel and Galena Hotel.","why_significant":"It is the oldest remaining hotel in Aurora and its vicinity. After its 1862 rebuilding it became the best-known place for parties, balls, marriages and social and political events, serving as a social center for a generation. It was built on the Chicago-Galena State Road when Aurora was becoming a milling and manufacturing town.","narrative":"Rising four floors above Galena Street in Aurora, Illinois, this brick hotel measures about seventy-seven by forty feet and has seven bays across its north front. The first hotel on the site, the Fox River House, was built in 1857 and burned in 1860. E.D. Huntoon rebuilt it in 1862 beside the Chicago-Galena State Road, which had been in use since the early 1830s, when Aurora was becoming a leading milling and manufacturing town. The hotel soon became known as the most popular place for parties, balls, marriages and political gatherings, and it served as a social center for over a generation. It later carried the names Northwestern Hotel, Grand Hotel and Galena Hotel. It is the oldest surviving hotel in Aurora. The exterior has changed little, with stone lintels, arched dormer windows and traces of former cornice brackets and verandas. Only the top floor keeps its original interior.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Italianate elements","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied and in fair condition; the exterior is little changed, the top-floor interior is original, and the other interior floors have been altered.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.456427-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/54/8931/28893154/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/76000710.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000710/6b0e2fa605-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000710/6b0e2fa605-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fox_River_House_Aurora_IL.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fox_River_House_Aurora_IL.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893154","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galena_Hotel","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5518386"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/kane-county/fox-river-house-76000710/"}