{"nrhp_refnum":"86003178","name":"Ayers Bank Building","other_names":["Farmers State Bank and Trust Company"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"200 W. State St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Jacksonville","county":"Morgan County","state":"IL","lat":39.73437400000006,"lon":-90.22999499999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-11-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A seven-story bank and office building at 200 West State Street in Jacksonville, Morgan County, Illinois, designed in 1911 and built 1912-1913 for the Ayers National Bank, later the Farmers State Bank.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the site has been continuously associated with banking longer than any other site in Illinois, starting with David Ball Ayers in the 1830s. The building symbolizes the financial role of the Ayers family and later bankers Dunlap and Russel. It was the city's first steel-frame building and its only high-rise commercial building.","narrative":"Rising above the smaller commercial buildings of downtown Jacksonville, this bank building at State and Sandy streets was designed in 1911 by Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt and opened on January 2, 1913, at a cost of about $250,000. Its lower floors are faced in cut stone and granite, the upper floors in brick with vertical piers, and the top is finished with a terra cotta cornice and balustrade. It was Jacksonville's first steel-frame building. The building matters mainly because of its site, where banking began with druggist-merchant David Ball Ayers in the early 1830s. Evidence suggests it may be the longest continuous banking location in Illinois. His sons carried the business forward, and bankers Millard Fillmore Dunlap and Andrew Russel later built the tall structure as a statement of confidence. Additions in 1958 and 1961 and renovations in 1984 changed the interior and some windows, but the exterior remains true to the original design, and the bank still uses it.","period_of_significance":"1911-1913","architect_builder":"Jarvis Hunt, Chicago (architect); James Stewart & Co., St. Louis (general contractor)","architectural_style":"Second Renaissance Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in use by the bank, which uses all floors but the top one; the exterior is described as maintained in remarkably good condition, with interior alterations in 1958, 1961 and 1984.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.959605-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/77/8937/28893777/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/86003178.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003178/f241b955fb-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003178/f241b955fb-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ayers_Bank_Building_in_Jacksonville.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ayers_Bank_Building_in_Jacksonville.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100002915","name":"Jacksonville Downtown Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/illinois/jacksonville-downtown-historic-district-100002915/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893777","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayers_Bank_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19600285"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/morgan-county/ayers-bank-building-86003178/"}