{"nrhp_refnum":"99000585","name":"Central House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"210 W. High St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Orangeville","county":"Stephenson County","state":"IL","lat":42.46918955500007,"lon":-89.64646691499996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1999-05-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story Italianate brick hotel at 210 West High Street in Orangeville, Stephenson County, Illinois, built about the 1860s by town founder John Bower, with a five-bay wooden carriage shed behind it.","why_significant":"The nomination argues local significance under Criterion A for commerce, because the hotel provided lodging, dining and a social gathering place for travelers, businessmen and townspeople. It is described as typical of mid-1800s small-town Midwest hotels, sat on a stagecoach road, and later served railroad-era salesmen and visitors. It is the only hotel in the town's history and the only three-story building in the business district.","narrative":"Central House is a three-story brick hotel at the head of Orangeville's business district, where Main Street meets High Street. Town founder John Bower built it around the 1860s in the Italianate style, on a stone foundation, with twenty rooms and a separate five-bay wooden carriage shed behind. It remains the tallest building downtown and the only one with three stories. The hotel served stagecoach travelers on the Freeport to Monroe, Wisconsin, road and later salesmen and visitors arriving after the Illinois Central Railroad opened in 1888. Its second-floor double parlor was a social gathering place for the town. The building stopped operating as a hotel in the 1930s and became a single-family home. Changes include a basement, a rear kitchen addition around 1911, the removal of the front balcony in the early 1950s, and added plumbing, electricity and heating. It was recognized locally for its role in commerce as the town's only hotel and one of its oldest surviving buildings.","period_of_significance":"c. 1860s-c. 1930s","architect_builder":"Bower, John, Builder","architectural_style":"Italianate","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Operated as a hotel until the 1930s, then used as a single-family dwelling; the form lists its current function as vacant/not in use.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.309728-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/68/8941/28894168/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/99000585.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/99000585/4dc0938a8f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/99000585/4dc0938a8f-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.5","author":"IvoShandor","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orangeville_Il_Central_House1.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">IvoShandor</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.5</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orangeville_Il_Central_House1.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28894168","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_House_(Orangeville,_Illinois)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5061222"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/stephenson-county/central-house-99000585/"}