{"nrhp_refnum":"96000086","name":"Ryerson, Edward L., Area Historic District","other_names":["Edward L. Ryerson Conservation Area"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"21950 N. Riverwoods Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Deerfield","county":"Lake County","state":"IL","lat":42.17951201050005,"lon":-87.91578804168059,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1996-02-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 471-acre historic district at 21950 North Riverwoods Road, Deerfield, Lake County, Illinois, along the Des Plaines River. It includes Edward L. Ryerson's 1942 Classical Revival country house with designed landscape, a 1938 farm complex, pasture, fields, forest and five log cabins built from 1928 onward.","why_significant":"The district is argued to reflect how wealthy Chicago-area families used the forested Des Plaines River land for weekend retreats and country living between 1923 and 1945. Ryerson's cabin and the other cabins show a simple, pioneer-like escape from city and business life, especially during the Depression. The farm, country house and surrounding landscape retain enough integrity to show land use of that period.","narrative":"This 471-acre district along the Des Plaines River in Lake County, Illinois, preserves a weekend and country retreat landscape created by Chicago-area families between 1923 and 1945. Its centerpiece is Edward L. Ryerson's 1942 Classical Revival country house, set within formal gardens laid out by Ambrose Cramer. Nearby are a 1938 farm complex with pasture and open fields, tracts of forest, and five log cabins, beginning with Ryerson's own cabin of 1928. Other cabins were built by Hermon Dunlap Smith, Chauncey Borland, Cramer and Ivan Albright. Ryerson, head of the Ryerson Steel Company, described the cabin as a simple refuge from city and business pressures during the Depression. Aerial photographs, plats, recollections and vegetation patterns show that the land still reflects its use during the period. The property passed to the Lake County Forest Preserve in 1972 and is now a conservation area crossed by roads and hiking trails.","period_of_significance":"1923-1945","architect_builder":"Ambrose Cramer (architect and landscape designer for the Ryerson country house); cabins built by Edward L. Ryerson, Hermon Dunlap Smith, Chauncey Borland, Ambrose Cramer and Ivan Albright","architectural_style":"Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals: Classical Revival; also log construction and New England barn","criteria":[],"status_note":"Owned by the Lake County Forest Preserve District since 1972 and used for outdoor recreation, with hiking trails; the Ryerson Cabin is described as having the best integrity of the surviving cabins.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.662943-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/88/8933/28893388/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/96000086.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96000086/38cf3705a6-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96000086/38cf3705a6-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Teemu08","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edward_L._Ryerson_Country_House.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Teemu08</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:Edward_L._Ryerson_Country_House.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893388","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_L._Ryerson_Conservation_Area","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16890931"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/lake-county/ryerson-edward-l-area-historic-district-96000086/"}