{"nrhp_refnum":"89001728","name":"Farm House","other_names":["Mumford House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1403 E. Lorado Taft Dr.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Urbana","county":"Champaign County","state":"IL","lat":40.102746152000066,"lon":-88.22806484799997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1989-10-31","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story, wood-frame Victorian Gothic farmhouse at 1403 E. Lorado Taft Drive on the south campus of the University of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois. It was designed in 1870 as a model farmhouse on the university's Experimental Farm and is also known as Mumford House.","why_significant":"The house is the oldest extant building on University of Illinois property and is tied to the founding of the university as an early land-grant college. It is linked to administrators John Milton Gregory and Thomas Jonathan Burrill, Burrill being its first occupant. It is also significant as an example of nineteenth-century pattern-book architecture influenced by Andrew Jackson Downing.","narrative":"Built in 1870 for $2,500, this two-story frame farmhouse in Urbana, Illinois, was designed as a model farmhouse for the Experimental Farm of the Illinois Industrial University, now the University of Illinois. It is the oldest surviving building on university property. Its Victorian Gothic design, with a front-gabled center section and flanking wings, reflects the pattern-book tradition influenced by Andrew Jackson Downing and by farmhouse advice from writers such as Samuel Backus. The original compact plan placed an office, parlor and kitchen around a central hall. The house is tied to university president John Milton Gregory, who promoted scientific agriculture, and to Thomas Jonathan Burrill, a plant pathology researcher who lived there from 1870 to 1877. It was shown at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Later rear and side additions, a reduced porch and interior changes have not altered the original north and east facades, and the building keeps a high level of integrity.","period_of_significance":"1870-1880","architect_builder":"Unknown/J.S. Searfoss","architectural_style":"Late Victorian/Gothic","criteria":["B","C"],"status_note":"Currently used for education (college); retains a high degree of integrity despite several additions, and sits on its original site on a reduced lot.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.56673-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/20/8918/28891820/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/89001728.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001728/eeda3540c7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001728/eeda3540c7-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0 us","author":"Dori","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FarmHouse_Urbana_Illinois_4583.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Dori</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0 us</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FarmHouse_Urbana_Illinois_4583.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28891820","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q134577446"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/champaign-county/farm-house-89001728/"}