{"nrhp_refnum":"87002049","name":"Bethalto Village Hall","other_names":["Old Village Hall"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"124 Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bethalto","county":"Madison County","state":"IL","lat":38.91010965500004,"lon":-90.04179618099994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1987-12-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story Italianate brick village hall and jail at 124 Main Street in Bethalto, Madison County, Illinois, built in 1873, with 20th-century concrete fire station additions.","why_significant":"The building is locally significant under Criterion A for its link to the governmental administration of Bethalto from 1873 on. It was the community's first publicly owned hall and the focus of village politics until 1963. It is also the oldest village hall in Madison County and typifies small-town halls combining an assembly room and administrative space.","narrative":"Bethalto's former village hall and jail, at the corner of Oak and Main Streets, is a two-story red brick building completed in 1873. Bethalto had been incorporated as a town in 1869 and met in rented rooms until residents petitioned for a combined hall and jail. The village board hired board member J. A. Miller to prepare plans and oversee construction, and the work was paid off in November 1873. The building has Italianate features, including a bracketed wooden cornice, a shallow gable over the central bay, and segmental and round-arched windows. A matching extension was added in 1885, and concrete fire station bays followed in 1938, 1944 and 1952. A central jail cell with thick plank walls survives inside. It was the first publicly owned hall in the community, served as the center of local government until 1963, and is the oldest village hall in Madison County. Its form and location reflect typical 19th-century town halls.","period_of_significance":"1873-1937","architect_builder":"J. A. Miller was hired in 1873 to draw up the plan and specifications and superintend construction (named in the narrative; the architect/builder field on the form is N/A).","architectural_style":"Late Victorian/Italianate","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"The fire station is no longer used as a fire station; its additions are used for storage and the hall has meeting space. Current functions listed include social/meeting hall.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.779433-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/78/8935/28893578/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/87002049.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87002049/85f3e33156-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87002049/85f3e33156-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bethalto_Village_Hall.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bethalto_Village_Hall.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893578","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethalto_Village_Hall","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16823149"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/madison-county/bethalto-village-hall-87002049/"}