{"nrhp_refnum":"79000841","name":"Campana Factory","other_names":["See Also:Campana Factory (Boundary Decrease)"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"N of Batavia on N. Batavia Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Batavia","county":"Kane County","state":"IL","lat":41.86507440850005,"lon":-88.31626063056686,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-04-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story industrial and office building with a central 100-meter tower, built in 1936-37 north of Batavia on North Batavia Avenue (IL Route 31), Kane County, Illinois, as the factory and headquarters of the Campana Corporation.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the factory is an unusually early and successful blend of Bauhaus and Art Deco design applied to an industrial building, at a time when such styles were rare in Midwestern factories. It also cites innovative manufacturing layout, air conditioning, open-plan offices, and foreign acclaim, including recognition by Canadian architects and a French architectural encyclopedia.","narrative":"Built in 1936-37 north of Batavia, Illinois, the Campana Factory served as both manufacturing plant and headquarters for the maker of Campana Italian Balm, America's leading hand lotion by 1936. The long three-story block is broken by a 100-meter tower and finished in buff tile, glass block, and turquoise faience bands, with rounded corners and no visible columns. Inside, white tile, a visitors' gallery, and an open secretarial pool reflected a clean, machine-like design. Chicago firm Childs and Smith worked with architectural engineer Frank D. Chase, though neither had been known for modern styles. The nomination highlights a gravity-fed mixing process, early full air conditioning, and a water tank in the tower for fire protection. Although American architectural writers largely overlooked it, Canadian architects ranked it among the best American buildings of 1937 and a French encyclopedia devoted six pages to it. Two glass block wings were added in the late 1940s.","period_of_significance":"1936-37","architect_builder":"Childs and Smith and Frank Chase and Associates, Joint Architects","architectural_style":"Art Deco and Bauhaus","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied; one major addition of two glass block wings in the late 1940s. The 1978 nomination notes the gravity-fed mixing arrangement is still used for certain products.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.218823-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/72/8931/28893172/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/79000841.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79000841/67854ae7f1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79000841/67854ae7f1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"G LeTourneau","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Campana_Factory_(Batavia,_IL)_01.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:Campana_Factory_(Batavia,_IL)_01.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893172","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campana_Factory","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5027896"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/kane-county/campana-factory-79000841/"}