{"nrhp_refnum":"86003724","name":"Moats, William, Farm","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Wood Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Ashton","county":"Ogle County","state":"IL","lat":41.90149699600005,"lon":-89.24736013499995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1987-02-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A farmstead on Wood Road near Ashton, Ogle County, Illinois, centered on a ca. 1844 coursed rubble limestone I House, with a ca. 1844 stone smoke house, a ca. 1900 dairy barn and a ca. 1930 Dempster windmill on a 5.17-acre site.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the farm is a well-preserved example of a Northern Illinois prairie farmstead from the first settlement period. The largely unaltered I House shows vernacular mid-Atlantic architecture, early prairie homestead site selection and local limestone construction. The outbuildings together show the rise, evolution and decline of a pioneer family farm, from self-sufficiency to dairying to cash-crop farming.","narrative":"Set on a slight rise in open prairie at the southwest corner of Lafayette Grove near Ashton, this Ogle County farmstead centers on a limestone house built around 1844 for William Moats, who came from the Hagerstown, Maryland area. The two-story house follows the I House type, with five window bays, two-foot-thick walls of locally quarried stone, Greek Revival cornice returns and a diamond-pane transom over the front door. Inside, the pine woodwork, animal hair plaster and walnut balustrade survive. Nearby stand a small stone smoke house of the same date, a ca. 1900 post-and-beam dairy barn built by the Mall-Kurth family, and a ca. 1930 windmill. The nomination presents the group as showing how a pioneer farm changed from near self-sufficiency to dairying and then to corn and soybean production. It also notes that early, largely unaltered five-bay stone I Houses are now scarce on the Northern Illinois prairie.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899, 1900- (specific dates 1844 (house)-1930)","architect_builder":"Stoddard (?) - house","architectural_style":"Vernacular mid-Atlantic \"I House\" with Greek Revival cornice returns","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied private residence and agricultural property; house in excellent to good condition, essentially unchanged apart from kitchen wing alterations; barn being reroofed.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.002933-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/85/8937/28893785/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/86003724.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003724/3316847a9c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003724/3316847a9c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.5","author":"IvoShandor","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wm._Moats_Farm.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">IvoShandor</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:Wm._Moats_Farm.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893785","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Moats_Farm","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8015698"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/ogle-county/moats-william-farm-86003724/"}