{"nrhp_refnum":"80001417","name":"Kirk, Col. Edward N., House","other_names":["Paul W. Dillon Home"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1005 E. 3rd St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Sterling","county":"Whiteside County","state":"IL","lat":41.78428712500005,"lon":-89.68329986299995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-10-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story brick Italianate house at 1005 E. 3rd Street in Sterling, Whiteside County, Illinois, built in 1857 for Col. Edward N. Kirk, with a brick barn built about 1859 on a 5.45-acre site.","why_significant":"The house was built by Colonel Edward N. Kirk, a Union officer in the Civil War who died in Sterling in 1863. It is also tied to Paul W. Dillon, who lived there most of his life and led Northwestern Steel and Wire Company, a major Sterling employer. Dillon introduced electric furnace steelmaking at the company in 1936 and was recognized across the steel industry.","narrative":"Built in 1857 for Colonel Edward N. Kirk, this brick Italianate house stands on a 5.45-acre site overlooking the Rock River in Sterling, Illinois. Kirk, a Union officer wounded twice in the Civil War, died in Sterling in 1863. The house has two stories, a basement, a viewing tower, a mahogany staircase, marble fireplaces and cherry paneling. A two-story brick barn, built around 1859, remains on the grounds. Newspaper descriptions from the 1870s match the house and barn as they appear today. The only major changes were the enclosure of the veranda in 1920 and a concealed elevator added in 1973. The property is also linked to the Dillon family. Washington M. Dillon founded the Northwestern Barb Wire Company in 1879, and his son Paul W. Dillon was born in the house in 1883 and lived there for decades. Paul Dillon led the company's move into electric furnace steelmaking in the 1930s, and the firm grew into a major steel producer.","period_of_significance":"1857-1859","architect_builder":"Unknown (built by Colonel Edward N. Kirk)","architectural_style":"Italianate (also described as Italian Renaissance)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied; described as in good, altered condition, with a 1920 porch enclosure and a 1973 hidden elevator. The nomination lists the owner as the Sterling Park District, with museum and park uses.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.265962-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/1/8943/28894301/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/80001417.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80001417/be41353bb8-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80001417/be41353bb8-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.5","author":"IvoShandor","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sterling_Il_Dillon_Home1.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">IvoShandor</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:Sterling_Il_Dillon_Home1.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28894301","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_W._Dillon_Home","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7154182"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/whiteside-county/kirk-col-edward-n-house-80001417/"}