{"nrhp_refnum":"86003720","name":"Sears, Albert H., House","other_names":["Robin's Nest"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"603 E. North St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Plano","county":"Kendall County","state":"IL","lat":41.66538314100006,"lon":-88.53033996999994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1987-01-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 2 1/2 story Queen Anne style house at 603 East North Street in Plano, Kendall County, Illinois, built in 1881 over the shell of an earlier house. The contractor was E. L. Hardin, and the house is known as \"Robin's Nest.\"","why_significant":"The house was the home of Albert H. Sears, described as one of Plano's most prominent businessmen and manufacturers in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It is also presented as a good, largely unaltered example of Queen Anne architecture, superior in size and ornament to the other Queen Anne houses in Plano.","narrative":"Built in 1881 over the shell of an earlier dwelling, this 2 1/2 story Queen Anne house at 603 East North Street in Plano stands on about two wooded acres, the remnant of an original six. Contractor E. L. Hardin rebuilt it for Albert H. Sears, who had bought the property from William Deering in 1880. The house has a square plan with a shaped rear wing, side bays, a corner tower with a conical roof and stained glass, and a wrap-around veranda on thirteen columns that extends into a porte cochere. Inside are oak woodwork, pocket doors, spindlework and servants' quarters. Sears was a manufacturer of farm implements, a private banker, a hardware and implement merchant and a real estate dealer, and his Sears Bank was the only one in Kendall County to survive the panic of 1893. The house is regarded as little changed in 105 years and as more elaborate than Plano's other Queen Anne houses. A 1920 garage is noncontributing.","period_of_significance":"1880 - 1917","architect_builder":"E. L. Hardin","architectural_style":"Queen Anne","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as a private residence, occupied, with work in progress; the form describes the condition as good and unaltered on its original site.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.468003-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/60/8932/28893260/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/86003720.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003720/61710321bb-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003720/61710321bb-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.5","author":"A. McMurray A mcmurray","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sears_House_Plano_Il5.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">A. McMurray A mcmurray</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.5</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sears_House_Plano_Il5.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893260","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_H._Sears_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4710378"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/kendall-county/sears-albert-h-house-86003720/"}