{"nrhp_refnum":"78003103","name":"Marsh, William W., House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"740 W. State St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Sycamore","county":"DeKalb County","state":"IL","lat":41.98962604500008,"lon":-88.69671967899995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-12-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture","Invention"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story brick Italianate house at 740 West State Street in Sycamore, DeKalb County, Illinois, built in 1873-75 by farmer-inventor William Wallace Marsh on a 12-acre tract.","why_significant":"It is associated with William W. Marsh, inventor of the Marsh harvester and superintendent of the Marsh Harvester Co., Sycamore's leading industry for over 30 years. The company's output provided a major source of local employment. The house is also described as an unusually elaborate Italianate residence for Sycamore.","narrative":"This two-story brick house at 740 West State Street in Sycamore, Illinois, was built in 1873-75 for William Wallace Marsh. Italianate in style, it sits on a high rock-faced stone foundation under a low, nearly flat roof with wide eaves and paired brackets above a panel frieze. A tall square cupola, with Palladian window groupings on each side and decorative metal cresting, crowns the roof. Tall windows have semi-elliptical arches with keystones, and the west side has two projecting bays. The brick has been painted white. Marsh was a farmer who became an inventor of farm machinery and later superintendent of the Marsh Harvester Co., which for over 30 years was Sycamore's leading industry and produced 4,000 to 6,000 harvesters annually. He also held patents on 35 other agricultural inventions. The grove at the rear of the original tract became Marsh Park, used for chautauquas and family picnics.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"William Wallace Marsh (builder/owner)","architectural_style":"Italianate","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied private residence; brick painted white, with an early two-story brick rear addition and a recent one-story frame addition.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.515935-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/16/8927/28892716/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/78003103.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78003103/86a500631a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78003103/86a500631a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.5","author":"Andy McMurray","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_W_Marsh_House4.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Andy McMurray</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.5</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_W_Marsh_House4.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892716","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_W._Marsh_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8019807"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/dekalb-county/marsh-william-w-house-78003103/"}