{"nrhp_refnum":"76000722","name":"Petersburg Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"IL 97","address_restricted":false,"city":"Petersburg","county":"Menard County","state":"IL","lat":40.00747284400006,"lon":-89.85280087471378,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-06-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Exploration/Settlement","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district covering most of the town of Petersburg, the Menard County seat in central Illinois, on the bluffs above the Sangamon River. It includes the courthouse square, residential streets, churches and Oakland Cemetery, with buildings dating from 1826 onward.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that Petersburg is the only town known to have been surveyed and platted by Abraham Lincoln, and that it has ties to nearby New Salem and to prominent 19th-century political figures. Its building stock is unusually old for central Illinois, and several houses are of a quality rarely found in the state. Italianate, Queen Anne, Greek Revival and early Federal-style buildings survive in a relatively intact small-town setting.","narrative":"Petersburg Historic District takes in most of the Menard County seat, a town on the bluffs above the Sangamon River about 23 miles north of Springfield. Commercial buildings cluster around the courthouse square, while churches and mostly frame houses spread across a rectangular street grid. The earliest houses date from 1826 to the mid-1840s, with Greek Revival, Queen Anne and many substantial Italianate residences from about 1865 to 1876. The district matters first for its origins: Abraham Lincoln surveyed and re-platted the town in 1836, and it is the only town known to have been platted by him. Prominent lawyers, legislators, merchants and bankers built large homes here, and Edgar Lee Masters spent his boyhood in a house now preserved as a memorial. The town's slow growth left much of its older building stock standing, although siding, storefront remodeling and some new construction have caused intrusions. Oakland Cemetery is included within the boundary.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"John Carver, contractor (McNeely and Laning houses); Robert Carver, contractor (Hamilton House); Diedrich Fischer, contractor (St. Paul United Church of Christ)","architectural_style":"Mixed: simplified Federal, Greek Revival, Queen Anne, and predominantly Italianate","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition marked good; many small mid-19th-century houses have been altered by siding, and commercial ground floors around the square have been modernized.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.752275-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/11/8937/28893711/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/76000722.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000722/468829756b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000722/468829756b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"Matt Turner","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Menard_County_Courthouse,_IL_(4504031312).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Matt Turner</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Menard_County_Courthouse,_IL_(4504031312).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893711","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petersburg_Historic_District_(Illinois)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14688018"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/menard-county/petersburg-historic-district-76000722/"}