{"nrhp_refnum":"80001369","name":"Aurora Elks Lodge No. 705","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"77 S. Stolp Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Aurora","county":"Kane County","state":"IL","lat":41.75638187100003,"lon":-88.31719155299999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-03-31","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A lodge building at 77 South Stolp Avenue on Stolp Island in the Fox River, Aurora, Illinois, designed in 1925 by Zimmerman, Saxe & Zimmerman of Chicago. It consists of two attached flat-roofed blocks of three and four storeys arranged in a T.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is significant for its unusual application of Mayan design to the exterior and interior of a Prairie School building. Details such as glyph reliefs, horizontal bands, recessed openings and a stepped cornice are drawn from Late Classic and Early Post-Classic Maya construction. Family tradition holds that architect W. C. Zimmerman studied recently discovered sites in Meso-America.","narrative":"Aurora Elks Lodge No. 705 is a clubhouse on Stolp Island in the Fox River, built to plans drawn in 1925 by the Chicago firm Zimmerman, Saxe & Zimmerman. Two flat-roofed blocks of three and four storeys form a T, built of reinforced concrete faced with brick and terra cotta. Its Prairie School massing is combined with ornament borrowed from Maya architecture. The street-facing walls use wide horizontal bands of dark red-brown twisted brick alternating with beige terra-cotta carved with stylized Mayan glyphs, and the openings are recessed and grouped in odd numbers. Inside are a beamed lounge with a Maya-detailed terra-cotta fireplace, a ballroom, a dining room, a bowling alley and 46 sleeping rooms. The building has seen little change beyond interior painting. Its significance rests on this unusual blend of Prairie School design and Maya motifs, which family tradition links to the architect's study of newly discovered sites in Meso-America.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"Zimmerman, Saxe & Zimmerman, Architects, Chicago","architectural_style":"Prairie School design with Maya Civilization ornamentation","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied by the Elks lodge, in excellent and unaltered condition on its original site; renovation work was under way to restore its original appearance.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.820105-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/34/8931/28893134/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/80001369.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80001369/27a5646cf4-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80001369/27a5646cf4-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Kepper66","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aurora_Elks_Lodge_No._705.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Kepper66</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:Aurora_Elks_Lodge_No._705.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"86001487","name":"Stolp Island Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/illinois/stolp-island-historic-district-86001487/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893134","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Elks_Lodge_No._705","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4822519"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/kane-county/aurora-elks-lodge-no-705-80001369/"}