{"nrhp_refnum":"98000976","name":"White and Company's Goose Lake Tile Works","other_names":["Jugtown Tile Works site","11gr70"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"5010 N. Jugtown Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Morris","county":"Grundy County","state":"IL","lat":41.34551800150004,"lon":-88.3173562124322,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1998-08-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Historic - Non-Aboriginal"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"An archaeological site (11-Gr-70) of a former tile works near Morris, Grundy County, Illinois, part of White and Company's mid-1850s stoneware and tile manufacturing operation at Goose Lake, now within a state-owned natural area used as a park.","why_significant":"The site is significant under Criterion D for its potential to yield information on early industrialized pottery and tile production in Illinois. White and Company built a large, capital-backed operation with a company town, Jugtown, that differed sharply from traditional farmer-potter workshops. The remains document workshop organization, multiple kilns, and community life from 1855 to 1866.","narrative":"This archaeological site near Morris, Illinois, preserves the remains of the tile-making half of White and Company's Goose Lake works, one of two industrial sites about 230 meters apart. William White, a potter from New York, joined Chicago financier Charles Walker in the mid-1850s to exploit clay deposits along the west edge of Goose Lake. The operation was unusually large for Illinois at the time. Each of the two facilities had its own workshop, drying sheds, three kilns and worker housing, unlike the single-kiln farmer-potters of earlier years. Because no nearby community existed, White created a company town, Jugtown, which held roughly 114 people in 21 households around 1860. Many residents were potters, drawn from New York and from Europe. The firm stopped production in 1866. Archaeological work in 1991 and 1993 identified concentrations of broken tile, kiln furniture and clinkers. The site was listed for what it can reveal about early industrialized ceramic production, and it lies in state-owned land used as a park.","period_of_significance":"1855-1866","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["D"],"status_note":"Now state-owned land within a natural area, with current function listed as landscape/park; the works ceased production in 1866.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.553455-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/25/8929/28892925/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/98000976.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98000976/e1db5af253-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98000976/e1db5af253-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Teemu08","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:White_and_Company%27s_Goose_Lake_Tile_Works.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:White_and_Company%27s_Goose_Lake_Tile_Works.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892925","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_and_Company%27s_Goose_Lake_Tile_Works","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14688247"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/grundy-county/white-and-companys-goose-lake-tile-works-98000976/"}