{"nrhp_refnum":"91001689","name":"LaHarpe City Hall","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"207 E. Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"LaHarpe","county":"Hancock County","state":"IL","lat":40.58328758300007,"lon":-90.96726907399994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1991-11-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story brick municipal building at 207 East Main Street in LaHarpe, Hancock County, Illinois, built in 1894 by contractor A.J. Hillier to serve as city hall, jail and fire station.","why_significant":"The building is considered locally significant under Criterion A in the area of Politics/Government. It reflects the community's effort to provide public welfare and safety facilities after the 1893 fire destroyed most of the business houses. It has housed municipal decision-making for about 97 years.","narrative":"Built in 1894 on East Main Street in LaHarpe, Illinois, this two-story brick building was designed to hold city government, a jail and a volunteer fire company under one roof. The city turned to construction after a fire in 1893 destroyed nearly all of the town's business houses. A.J. Hillier was contracted to build it, with the land costing $550, construction $2,086 and the two-cell jail cage $1,486. The asymmetrical commercial-style front includes a round-arched entrance portal and a square bell tower, though the bell was later moved to a windmill tower because of poor acoustics. Inside, the ground floor held the fire house, the police magistrate's court and jail, and an election room, while the second floor contained the council chamber. The garage door was altered in the 1920s for fire trucks, and the jail cells were removed in 1976. The building appears much as it did in 1894 and still serves municipal government.","period_of_significance":"1894-1941","architect_builder":"Hillier, A.J./builder","architectural_style":"Commercial","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Still used as city hall and police station; the former fire station side is used for storage, and the jail cells were removed in 1976.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.885193-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/53/8929/28892953/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/91001689.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/91001689/0ba0db49f6-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/91001689/0ba0db49f6-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Harpe_City_Hall.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Harpe_City_Hall.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892953","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Harpe_City_Hall","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21197511"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/hancock-county/laharpe-city-hall-91001689/"}