{"nrhp_refnum":"90001200","name":"Pontiac City Hall and Fire Station","other_names":["Old City Hall"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"110 W. Howard St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Pontiac","county":"Livingston County","state":"IL","lat":40.88092069100003,"lon":-88.62901295299997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-08-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A combined city hall and fire station at 110 West Howard Street in Pontiac, Livingston County, Illinois, built in 1900. It is a two-and-one-half story red brick building with an attached two-story fire station, linked by a bell tower.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is locally significant under Criterion A for its direct connection with Pontiac's city government. It served as the center of city political functions and fire protection from 1900 until 1986. It also reflects the early twentieth-century trend of centralizing city departments in one building.","narrative":"Built in 1900 one block north of the Pontiac courthouse square, this red brick building combines a city hall and a fire station under one design. The two-and-one-half story City Hall has a limestone foundation, a steeply pitched hip roof and square corner towers. A three-and-one-half story bell tower joins it to the two-story Fire Station. Architect John H. Barnes of Joliet won the commission on the third ballot, and J. A. Sipe built it for a low bid of $14,685. The building replaced an 1883 Engine House that no longer met the needs of a growing population. It housed the council chambers, city records, the police court, jail cells and firefighters' quarters, and it served as the center of city government and fire protection until 1986. Alterations include widened fire bay doors from 1958, asphalt roofing patches and interior finishes added over original materials, though the original floor plan remains largely intact.","period_of_significance":"1900-1940","architect_builder":"Barnes, John H.","architectural_style":"Late Victorian/Romanesque","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"The City Hall is partly used for city offices; the Fire Station is vacant and its first floor is used for storage.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:34.551307-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/69/8934/28893469/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/90001200.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90001200/726cd99642-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90001200/726cd99642-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"IvoShandor","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pontiac_City_Hall_and_Fire_Station14.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">IvoShandor</a>, <a href=\"http://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:Pontiac_City_Hall_and_Fire_Station14.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893469","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_City_Hall_and_Fire_Station","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14688031"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/livingston-county/pontiac-city-hall-and-fire-station-90001200/"}