{"nrhp_refnum":"89001731","name":"Whitney, William, House","other_names":["Hallmark House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"142 E. First St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Hinsdale","county":"DuPage County","state":"IL","lat":41.801286108000056,"lon":-87.92455848799995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1989-10-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story, wood balloon-frame Italianate house at 142 East First Street in Hinsdale, DuPage County, Illinois, built in 1869 as one of the first residences in the village.","why_significant":"The house is tied to William Whitney, who lived there from 1870 to 1879 and led the 1872-73 effort to incorporate Hinsdale as a village. He was a DuPage County clerk, state legislator and real estate developer who later faded from public record. The house also keeps excellent exterior integrity and is the best preserved of the few remaining Italianate buildings in Hinsdale.","narrative":"Built in 1869 on a rise at the corner of First Street and Park Avenue, this Italianate house was among the first residences in Hinsdale. It is a wood balloon-frame building with an L-shaped plan, segmental arch windows, paired eave brackets, rope cornice molding and a full-width front porch. Levi and Maria Stodder had it built, and William Whitney bought it in 1870. Whitney, a former DuPage County circuit clerk and state legislator, lived there until 1879. In 1872 he drafted and circulated the petition that led to a referendum, approved 60 to 2 in March 1873, making Hinsdale an incorporated village. Financial reverses after the Panic of 1873 pushed him out of local records, and a historian later called him a forgotten man with a memorable deed. Apart from a 1950s rear kitchen enlargement, the exterior remains close to its 1880s appearance, and many interior details, including a marble fireplace and walnut stair bannister, survive.","period_of_significance":"1872-1873","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Late Victorian/Italianate","criteria":["B"],"status_note":"Used as a single dwelling and for health care/medical business/office; exterior almost unchanged from the 1880s apart from the rear, and a new carriage-house-style garage was added in 1988.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.67181-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/5/8928/28892805/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/89001731.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001731/7477814d6e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001731/7477814d6e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Teemu08 (talk)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Whitney_House.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Teemu08 (talk)</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Whitney_House.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"08001098","name":"Robbins Park Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/illinois/robbins-park-historic-district-08001098/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892805","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Whitney_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8020316"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/dupage-county/whitney-william-house-89001731/"}