{"nrhp_refnum":"84001071","name":"Pine Grove Community Club","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"NW of Paris","address_restricted":false,"city":"Paris","county":"Edgar County","state":"IL","lat":39.68956566500003,"lon":-87.72377766099999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-03-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A rural community club complex northwest of Paris, Edgar County, Illinois, made up of a one-room brick schoolhouse and a former Methodist church building (built 1891) on a 1 3/4 acre landscaped site.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the club is a well-preserved example of the agricultural extension service's contribution to the Country Life movement. Illinois community clubs were organized in the 1930s as part of a University of Illinois community development strategy. Pine Grove has the best-preserved buildings of the few such clubs that survive in Edgar County.","narrative":"Two buildings at a rural crossroads northwest of Paris, Illinois, make up the Pine Grove Community Club: a one-room brick schoolhouse measuring about 30 by 24 feet and a former Methodist church built in 1891. The church is L-shaped with white clapboard siding, a meeting room with a raised stage and a hand-painted theatre curtain from about 1935, and a kitchen ell. Its bell tower steeple was removed in the 1930s. The school stands on land set aside for public education and also served as a church until the church was built. When the Methodist Conference closed the church in 1935, the club bought it for $125 as a permanent meeting place. The club belongs to a series of community clubs promoted in Illinois through the University of Illinois extension service as part of the Country Life movement. Of Edgar County's surviving clubs, Pine Grove has the best-preserved buildings, set on landscaped grounds among century-old trees.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Occupied and in use by the community club; the grounds were landscaped in recent years. The school interior has been furnished to look like a classroom, and the church has a lowered acoustical tile ceiling and a removed steeple.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.797771-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/25/8928/28892825/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/84001071.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84001071/40a8cfcad2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84001071/40a8cfcad2-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pine_Grove_Community_Club_from_west.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pine_Grove_Community_Club_from_west.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892825","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Grove_Community_Club","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7195167"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/edgar-county/pine-grove-community-club-84001071/"}