{"nrhp_refnum":"98000065","name":"Brainerd, Charles, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"420 E. Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Grafton","county":"Jersey County","state":"IL","lat":38.97208854000007,"lon":-90.42919034599998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1998-02-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-and-one-half-story brick Queen Anne style house at 420 East Main Street, Grafton, Jersey County, Illinois, built in 1885 for Charles Brainerd, with a limestone retaining wall along two sides of the lot.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the house as a well-preserved example of Queen Anne architecture in Grafton, with a high degree of interior integrity including original woodwork, fireplaces and hardware. It also marks the eastern entrance to the river town. The surviving text does not state the criteria or period of significance.","narrative":"Built in 1885 for Charles Brainerd, this two-and-one-half-story brick house sits at the northwest corner of Main Street and Grafton Hills Drive, at the eastern edge of Grafton where the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers meet. It is designed in the Queen Anne style, with a rock-faced limestone foundation resting on the natural bluff outcrop, limestone lintels and sills, multiple gables, and bands of hexagonal slate shingles. An angled corner entrance, topped by a steep pyramidal roof that reads as a tower, opens to a small porch with turned posts and spindlework. Inside, the house keeps original pine floors, cherry and pine woodwork, brass window locks, and three fireplaces. Rear additions from the 1970s were built when the house served as a restaurant. A limestone retaining wall frames the lot. The house is a prominent focal point at the entrance to town and is now being rehabilitated as a restaurant and bed and breakfast.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Queen Anne","criteria":[],"status_note":"Under rehabilitation for use as a restaurant and bed and breakfast; it was previously used as a restaurant from the late 1970s to early 1990s.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.15618-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/86/8911/28891186/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/98000065.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98000065/10970552ce-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98000065/10970552ce-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Wikigaurabia","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_brainerd_grafton.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Wikigaurabia</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:Charles_brainerd_grafton.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28891186","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Brainerd_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16845789"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/jersey-county/brainerd-charles-house-98000065/"}