In the six decades since the federal government created the National Register of Historic Places, thousands of historic and prehistoric places across Illinois have been deemed worthy of the designation. 

That includes more than 30 places across the Tri-Cities area.

From grain elevators and railroad depots to 100-year-old churches, schools, and family farmsteads, these sites trace the Tri-Cities back to its earliest settlers.

If you own or have involvement with a historic place that’s not on this list, anyone can apply to have a property considered for listing in the Register.

Here’s the local list:

Batavia Institute | Batavia | 333 S. Jefferson St. | Listed on August 13, 1976
Built in 1853-1854 as a private academy, the building later operated as Bellevue Place Sanitarium, a women's rest home where Mary Todd Lincoln was committed for several months in 1875.

Campana Factory | Batavia | 901 N. Batavia Ave. | Listed on April 6, 1979
This 1936-37 Art Deco and Streamline Moderne building served as headquarters for The Campana Company, maker of the popular Italian Balm hand lotion, and was one of the region's earliest fully air-conditioned factories.

Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad Depot | Batavia | 155 Houston St. | Listed on June 6, 1979
Built in 1855 and relocated to its current site in 1973, this depot now houses the Batavia Depot Museum and tells the story of the city's railroad, windmill, and settlement history.

Louise White School | Batavia | 24 N. Washington Ave. | Listed on November 7, 1980
In active use as a school from 1893 through the 1970s, this Romanesque Revival limestone building also served as the regional home of the Chautauqua lecture movement. The current Louise White Elementary School moved to a new building on Prairie Avenue in the 1970s-80s.

First Methodist Church of Batavia | Batavia | 355 1st St. | Listed on March 19, 1982
Built in 1852, this building served the Methodist congregation until 1887 and was later converted into the McWayne School Annex, which held classes until 1978.

Stearns-Wadsworth House | Batavia | 1 S. 570 Bliss Rd. | Listed on March 19, 1982
Built in 1868 for farmer George N. Stearns, this house later operated as a creamery and grist mill and remains an example of a 19th-century residence in the once-planned community of Bald Mound.

United Methodist Church of Batavia | Batavia | 8 N. Batavia Ave. | Listed on July 28, 1983
Designed by noted architect Solon Spencer Beman in the Romanesque Revival style and funded by Rev. E. H. Gammon and Capt. Don Carlos Newton, this church was built in 1887 from local field boulders.

Judge Isaac Wilson House | Batavia | 406 E. Wilson St. | Listed on May 9, 1985
Home of Isaac Wilson, the former New York congressman who settled the area in 1835 and named the city after his hometown of Batavia, New York. The Greek Revival frame house was built in 1843.

Mrs. A. W. Gridley House | Batavia | 637 N. Batavia Ave. | Listed on February 3, 1993
A Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Prairie School home built in 1906, originally named "Ravine Place" or “Ravine House” (depending on the source) for the wildflower ravine south of the property.

Holy Cross Church | Batavia | 14 N. Van Buren St. | Listed on May 20, 1999
Built in 1897 to serve Batavia's Holy Cross Catholic congregation, many of them Irish immigrants working the local quarries. The Gothic Revival building now serves as the Eastside Community Center.

Central Geneva Historic District | Geneva | Roughly bounded by Fox River, South, 6th and W. State Streets | Listed on September 10, 1979
A 102-building district covering the southern half of Geneva's original platted settlement, anchored by the Kane County Courthouse.

North Geneva Historic District | Geneva | Roughly bounded by railroad tracks, Fox River, Stevens and W. State Streets | Listed on March 25, 1983
Covering the northern half of Geneva's original settlement that was home to both prominent businessmen and working-class residents, this 161-building district includes three of the city's first five churches.

Fabyan Villa | Geneva | 1511 S. Batavia Ave. | Listed on February 9, 1984
The home of Colonel George and Nelle Fabyan from roughly 1908 to 1939 is now a museum reflecting the couple's eclectic estate, which features a Japanese garden and once included a private zoo and the Riverbank cryptology and acoustics laboratories.

Geneva Country Day School | Geneva | 1250 South St. | Listed on August 21, 1989
Built in 1927 as a progressive, child-centered school, the building closed in 1939 due to enrollment declines during the Great Depression.

Riverbank Laboratories | Geneva | 1512 Batavia Ave. | Listed on November 28, 2003
Founded by George Fabyan in 1918, this acoustics research facility built the nation's first reverberation chamber and also housed cryptology work credited by the NSA as critical to American codebreaking during World War I.

Elizabeth Place | Geneva | 316 Elizabeth Pl. | Listed on May 12, 2008
The structure was built around the turn of the 20th century in the Mission Revival style for businessman and three-time Geneva mayor Henry Bond Fargo, who named the house in honor of his wife.

Pure Oil Station | Geneva | 502 W State St | Listed on April 23, 2013
Built in 1937 along the Lincoln Highway, this cottage-style filling station is one of only two surviving gas stations from the six that once lined downtown State Street.

Durant House | St. Charles | LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve | Listed on June 18, 1976
Built in 1843 by Massachusetts native Bryant Durant just before his marriage, this brick prairie farmhouse is now operated as the Durant-Peterson House Museum and offers a hands-on look at pioneer life.

Garfield Farm and Tavern | St. Charles | IL 38 and Garfield Rd. | Listed on June 23, 1978
An 1840s farmstead and teamsters' inn built by Timothy Garfield, where travelers paid 37.5 cents a night and the second-floor ballroom hosted Saturday dances. The museum has since grown to 27 historic structures across 374 acres of farmland, prairie, and wetland.

Hotel Baker | St. Charles | 100 W. Main St. | Listed on December 8, 1978
Opened in 1928 as Colonel Edward J. Baker's vision of a luxury riverside resort, this Spanish Revival hotel featured its own hydroelectric plant and the country's first lighted dance floor in its Rainbow Room.

City Building | St. Charles | 15 N. Riverside Ave. | Listed on March 21, 1979
Built in 1892 as St. Charles's first government building, this brick structure served as town hall, police station, and firehouse before city staff outgrew it in the 1940s.

Andrew Weisel House | St. Charles | 312 N. 2nd Ave. | Listed on February 26, 1982
A small Greek Revival cottage of brick and river stone built in 1853 by stonemason Andrew Weisel, who likely trained under prominent local builder William Beith.

Hunt House | St. Charles | 304 Cedar Ave. | Listed on November 12, 1982
Credited as the oldest brick residence in St. Charles, this Greek Revival home was built in 1841 by early town developer Bela Thaxter Hunt and later operated as the Dunham-Hunt Museum.

William Beith House | St. Charles | 6 Indiana St. | Listed on December 7, 1983
Built between 1845 and 1850 by Scottish immigrant and prominent local builder William Beith, this home is one of the only structures of its kind and era remaining in St. Charles.

Arcada Theater Building | St. Charles | 105 E. Main St. and 1st Ave. | Listed on August 16, 1994
Opened on Labor Day 1926 by local businessman Lester Norris, this Spanish-Venetian style vaudeville and movie palace hosted stars of the era including George Burns and Gracie Allen.

Joel H. Hubbard House | St. Charles | 304 N. 2nd Ave. | Listed on May 4, 2011
A Greek Revival house built in 1854 by carpenter Joel H. Hubbard and later owned by George Ferson, a member of the Kane County Board of Supervisors.

Corron Farm | St. Charles | 7N761 Corron Road | Listed on May 21, 2018
Settled in 1835 by Robert Corron, one of Kane County's earliest residents, this fully intact farmstead includes a Greek Revival farmhouse built from clay bricks fired on site and a dairy barn that supplied milk to the 1893 World's Fair.

Oaklawn Farm Historic District | Wayne | Army Trail and Dunham Roads | Listed on July 26, 1979
Once an internationally recognized horse breeding operation under Mark Wentworth Dunham, this district includes the chateauesque Dunham Castle and in the past drew visitors as prominent as Daniel Burnham and Marshall Field.

Campton Town Hall | Wasco | W of Wasco at Town Hall Rd. and IL 64 | Listed on November 24, 1980
In continuous use since 1874 as the administrative seat of Campton Township, this one-room vernacular hall has been saved from demolition twice by local fundraising efforts.

Potter and Barker Grain Elevator | La Fox | 1N298 La Fox Rd. | Listed on December 27, 2016
Built in 1868 by former whaling captain Lemuel Potter and his brother-in-law Henry Barker, this small grain elevator served as a railside transfer point until 1945 and was relocated about 260 feet in 2003 to accommodate Metra's third rail.

Learn more about the National Register of Historic Places.

Site details were checked against original National Register nomination forms where digitally available (text-readable PDFs through municipal or NPS archives); the remainder are sourced from secondary references including Wikipedia, Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley, and local historical museums and societies.

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