{"nrhp_refnum":"83000337","name":"Schlosser, Frank, Complex","other_names":["Heritage House Museum"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"W. Walnut St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Okawville","county":"Washington County","state":"IL","lat":38.434704956000076,"lon":-89.55171868699995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-08-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Other","Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A complex of eight structures and landscape features on West Walnut Street in Okawville, Illinois, including a residence, harness shop, laundry, barn and outbuildings, dating from roughly the first quarter of the twentieth century. The house is dated 1908 and the harness shop 1890; the builder and architect are unknown.","why_significant":"The property is significant because the whole site survives intact, with its original contents, as the social and commercial setting of a Midwestern family of German descent. The harness shop reflects the area's agricultural history, and the laundry served guests of the town's mineral springs hotels and baths. The preserved furnishings and artifacts show daily life in the first third of the twentieth century.","narrative":"This small complex on West Walnut Street in Okawville, Illinois, preserves the home and workplaces of the Schlosser family. It includes a wood-frame residence, a harness shop, a laundry, a barn, three small outbuildings, and fences, wells and sidewalks. The buildings are vernacular late- and post-Victorian designs, each different in function but unified by similar scale, plain materials and minimal ornament. Frank Schlosser opened the harness shop in 1890 and ran it until his death in 1941. His wife and daughters operated the laundry, which drew much of its business from guests at the town's mineral springs hotels. After the daughters died in 1982, the contents of the buildings were found preserved intact, including toys, postcards, sheet music, records, harness-making tools and stock, magazines, a 1930 Buick and a surrey. The property matters because the entire site survives complete, showing the commercial and family life of a German-descended Midwestern household in the early twentieth century.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899, 1900- (specific dates: House 1908, Harness Shop 1890)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Vernacular Midwestern late- and post-Victorian","criteria":[],"status_note":"Operated as the Heritage House Museum; the form marks the property as unoccupied, in good condition, unaltered and on its original site.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.983374-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/59/8942/28894259/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/83000337.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83000337/6a3dd809b3-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83000337/6a3dd809b3-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schlosser_House_at_the_Heritage_House_Museum.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schlosser_House_at_the_Heritage_House_Museum.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28894259","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_House_Museum","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15223713"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/washington-county/schlosser-frank-complex-83000337/"}