{"nrhp_refnum":"84000327","name":"Fort Armstrong Hotel","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"3rd Ave. and 19th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Rock Island","county":"Rock Island County","state":"IL","lat":41.50944098800005,"lon":-90.57311025399997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-11-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A nine-story hotel building at Third Avenue and Nineteenth Street in Rock Island, Rock Island County, Illinois, built in 1925-1926 and designed by Chicago hotel architect Charles W. Nicol.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the hotel was a product of community effort, funded largely by stock sales to more than 600 mostly local subscribers. It was a social and civic center for Rock Island for over half a century and hosted conventions and local events. It also retains an intact exterior and lobby/mezzanine in Italian Renaissance Revival style, with a theme drawn from old Fort Armstrong.","narrative":"Rising nine stories at Third Avenue and Nineteenth Street in Rock Island, this hotel was built in 1925-1926 to designs by Chicago hotel architect Charles W. Nicol. It originally held 160 guest rooms, ten top-floor apartments, a ballroom, dining rooms, a bar, a bowling alley and ground-floor shops. The exterior is clad in \"woodland rustico\" brick with ornate masonry at the crown and corners, and a hewn-log entrance recalls the early Fort Armstrong on the Mississippi. Inside, the lobby keeps its walnut columns, marble stairway, wrought iron mezzanine railing and a large mural of the old fort. The hotel was listed because of the way it was financed and used. Over 600 subscribers, nearly all Rock Island residents, bought stock to pay for a project costing about $800,000. For more than fifty years it served as a gathering place for banquets, dances, conventions and travelers. At the time of nomination it stood vacant, with plans for apartment conversion.","period_of_significance":"1925-26","architect_builder":"Charles W. Nicol (architect); William J. Church (general construction superintendent)","architectural_style":"Italian Renaissance Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as closed and vacant at the time of nomination; exterior in very good structural condition, with plans to convert the upper floors to apartments and refurbish the lobby and shops.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.327571-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/75/8939/28893975/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/84000327.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84000327/2c2f25495a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84000327/2c2f25495a-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ft_Armstrong_Hotel_RI_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:Ft_Armstrong_Hotel_RI_IL.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100004433","name":"Downtown Rock Island Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/illinois/downtown-rock-island-historic-district-100004433/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893975","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Armstrong_Hotel","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5470750"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/rock-island-county/fort-armstrong-hotel-84000327/"}