{"nrhp_refnum":"76000727","name":"Black's Store","other_names":["Curiosity Shop"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1st Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Hampton","county":"Rock Island County","state":"IL","lat":41.55713641500006,"lon":-90.41436823299995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-05-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Transportation"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story brick commercial building on First Avenue in Hampton, Rock Island County, Illinois, built in 1846 by business partners Francis Black and Saranus Brettun beside the Mississippi River.","why_significant":"The store reflects the era when the Mississippi River was the main avenue of western commerce. Black and Brettun operated as merchants and pork packers, trading retail goods with farmers for pork and grain shipped by steamboat. Store records from 1846 to well past 1900 survive at the Putnam Museum in Davenport, Iowa, documenting the shift from river commerce to a simple general store.","narrative":"Built in 1846 beside the Mississippi River in Hampton, Illinois, Black's Store was a two-story brick building put up by partners Francis Black and Saranus Brettun. Its front faced the Galena Stage Road and the town's commercial district, while the back opened toward the river, where a wharf let steamboats dock. Local brick, timber and stone were used in construction. The partners were merchants who also ran a pork packing business. Barrels of pork and grain were held in the basement, goods were stocked upstairs, and farmers from a wide area came to trade. Over time the building also served as a post office, a stage stop and, in the 1930s, a private museum of curiosities. Store records from 1846 to well past 1900 are preserved at the Putnam Museum in Davenport, Iowa. Few surviving buildings are so closely tied to the commercial history of the Upper Mississippi. The structure is deteriorating, with cracked masonry and foliage covering much of it.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Vernacular (a summary sheet lists no formal style)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as deteriorating, with settling, cracked brick and mortar, and repairs to the northwest corner; a reviewer's note calls it empty but minimally maintained.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.156181-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/85/8939/28893985/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/76000727.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000727/e5b963ecc6-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000727/e5b963ecc6-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Ctjf83","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black%27s_Store_Hampton_IL.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Ctjf83</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:Black%27s_Store_Hampton_IL.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893985","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black%27s_Store","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4920042"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/rock-island-county/blacks-store-76000727/"}