{"nrhp_refnum":"95000993","name":"Health Education Building","other_names":["McAfee Gymnasium"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1611 4th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Charleston","county":"Coles County","state":"IL","lat":39.481688922000046,"lon":-88.17648388199996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1995-08-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Entertainment/Recreation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-level gymnasium and health education building on the Eastern Illinois University campus at 1611 4th Street, Charleston, Illinois, completed in 1938 and now known as McAfee Gymnasium.","why_significant":"The building gave Eastern Illinois State Teachers College its first \"modern\" facility, breaking from the Medieval and Gothic styles of earlier campus buildings. It is described as an exemplary, highly intact representative of 1930s Modernistic institutional architecture. It also met the college's long-standing need for larger educational, recreational and entertainment space.","narrative":"Completed in 1938 on the west side of the Eastern Illinois University campus in Charleston, this three-level building was designed as a gymnasium, stage and health education facility and is now known as McAfee Gymnasium. Its blonde brick walls are banded with concrete courses and fitted with steel ribbon windows. An 80-foot octagonal tower with a clock and a tile roof marks the main entrance, and half-gabled ceramic tile roofs cover the side extensions. Art Deco details appear inside as well, including stepped ceilings, octagonal glazed doors and stacked-plate light fixtures. The building mixes Art Deco, Moderne, International and Mediterranean features. It mattered to the college because the old Pemberton Hall gym was too small, seating only a few hundred spectators, and some rival schools refused to play there. State and federal money finally made a new building possible in the mid-1930s. It was the campus's first modern-style structure, departing from earlier Gothic designs, and it retains excellent integrity.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Art Deco, Moderne, International style","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still in use as a gymnasium and college facility, with a registration office, locker rooms, a dance studio and classroom space; described as having excellent integrity.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.584263-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/6/8919/28891906/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/95000993.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95000993/4d0b9ce288-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95000993/4d0b9ce288-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"jrmyers","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Health_Education_Building_2012-09-26_10-25-28.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">jrmyers</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:Health_Education_Building_2012-09-26_10-25-28.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28891906","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Education_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5690518"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/coles-county/health-education-building-95000993/"}