{"nrhp_refnum":"82002544","name":"Hotel Aurora","other_names":["Aurora Hotel"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"2 N. Stolp Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Aurora","county":"Kane County","state":"IL","lat":41.75829766000004,"lon":-88.31506557599994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-06-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"An eight-story reinforced concrete hotel, with a basement, at Two North Stolp Avenue on Stolp Island in Aurora, Kane County, Illinois, built in 1917 and designed by architect H. Ziegler Dietz.","why_significant":"It was the first tall building (over four stories) in Aurora's central business district and the city's first large hotel. It reflected citizens' effort to raise Aurora's standing as a commerce center. Its Fox River facade, with cantilevered projections over the river wall, is cited as an imaginative architectural and engineering solution to a constricted site. The building is described as virtually intact.","narrative":"Rising eight stories above Stolp Island in downtown Aurora, Illinois, this hotel opened on July 14, 1917, in time for Aurora Race Week. It was the city's first large hotel and its first building taller than four stories. Local civic leaders formed the Aurora Island Hotel Corporation in 1915 to build a first-class hotel and strengthen Aurora as a commercial center. Architect H. Ziegler Dietz designed a fireproof structure of reinforced concrete with flat slab floors, anchored to bedrock, faced in brick and Indiana limestone. Its west side projects over the Fox River on a two-story cantilevered porch, a solution to the narrow site. Inside, the two-story lobby had black walnut woodwork, Tennessee marble floors and a grand staircase leading to a basement restaurant. The hotel had 135 rooms. The nomination describes the building as largely intact and capable of restoration, though some original entrances and storefronts have been replaced.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"H. Ziegler Dietz, Architect","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied. The exterior is described as in good shape, needing spot tuckpointing, cleaning, cornice repairs and sash replacement; original entrances and some storefronts have been replaced with aluminum.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.598313-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/98/8931/28893198/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/82002544.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82002544/22c7168d31-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82002544/22c7168d31-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aurora_Hotel_IL.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aurora_Hotel_IL.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100008483","name":"Aurora Broadway Historic District (Additional Documentation)","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/illinois/aurora-broadway-historic-district-additional-documentation-100008483/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893198","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Aurora_(Aurora,_Illinois)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5911213"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/kane-county/hotel-aurora-82002544/"}