LaSalle Street Auto Row Historic District

LaSalle Street Auto Row is a block of fifteen brick commercial buildings on the eastern edge of downtown Aurora, Illinois. Three were built around 1890 in the Late Victorian manner; the rest went up between 1907 and 1930 in the Commercial style, with limestone and terra cotta trim. Until the 1880s and 1890s the street was residential, home to wealthy families such as Senator H.H. Evans, but downtown growth pushed commercial uses east of Broadway. Coats Garage, built about 1907, was the first automobile business on the block. By 1912 a local newspaper advertisement called the street "Auto Row," and by the 1920s car dealers, tire shops and garages dominated it. Other buildings include the Odd Fellows hall, the Loyal Order of Moose hall and the Finch & McCullouch printing block. Some storefronts have been boarded up or altered, though several have recently been restored. The street retains more of its original character than neighboring commercial blocks, which lost more buildings to demolition.