{"nrhp_refnum":"78001157","name":"Hotel Baker","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"100 W. Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"St. Charles","county":"Kane County","state":"IL","lat":41.91357265000005,"lon":-88.31511777799994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-12-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Engineering","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Hotel Baker is a five-story steel-framed hotel at 100 West Main Street in St. Charles, Kane County, Illinois, on the Fox River. It was built in 1926-28 for Colonel Edward Baker and designed by the architects Wolf, Sexton, Harper & Trueax.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that the hotel is an excellent example of traditional Spanish styles applied to a modern commercial building, with well-preserved detail. It also points to the original 1927 hydroelectric generators in the basement, one of the area's first self-sustaining hydroelectric sites. It is also a rare type of small, high-quality hotel that is no longer built, and every room in the original hotel was different.","narrative":"Hotel Baker is a five-story hotel on West Main Street in St. Charles, Illinois, built in 1926-28 for Colonel Edward Baker, a local millionaire who made his fortune in barbed wire. Inspired by the architecture of Spain, he commissioned Wolf, Sexton, Harper & Trueax to design a Spanish-flavored hotel. Brown brick and beige terra cotta cover a modern steel frame, and spiral columns flank the entrance. Inside, stenciled Spanish and Moorish patterns, a lounge styled as an open plaza, and a glass-block dance floor lit by more than a thousand colored bulbs set it apart. Every room in the original hotel differed in layout and furnishing. In the basement, generators installed in 1927 were powered by water diverted from the Fox River. The hotel served Chicago vacationers and newlyweds before being donated in 1969 to a Lutheran social service agency, which uses it as a retirement hotel and community center. Its well-preserved detail and technology support its listing.","period_of_significance":"1900- (construction 1926-8)","architect_builder":"Wolf, Sexton, Harper & Trueax, arch.","architectural_style":"Free interpretation of traditional Spanish architecture (Spanish and Moorish detail)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition excellent/good and occupied; used as a retirement hotel and community center for the elderly. The exterior is unchanged from the original.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.491583-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/92/8931/28893192/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/78001157.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78001157/91f40de2e9-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78001157/91f40de2e9-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"G LeTourneau","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hotel_Baker_(St._Charles,_IL)_05.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">G LeTourneau</a>, <a href=\"http://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:Hotel_Baker_(St._Charles,_IL)_05.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893192","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Baker","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5911224"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/kane-county/hotel-baker-78001157/"}