National Register of Historic Places
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McGuire Igleski has collaborated with municipalities, cultural institutions, and private owners across the State of Illinois to list historic sites on the National Register of Historic Places, honoring their communities’ cultural heritage and architectural legacy. As part of each nomination, McGuire Igleski conducts an architectural survey of the built resources that comprise the individual site or district. The survey serves as the basis for the resource inventory and narrative description, which illustrates the resource’s community context and setting, architecture, and significant character-defining features. For districts, the survey also provides the foundation for the nomination’s boundary justification and identification of contributing and non-contributing resources. Detailed archival research identifies the application Criteria for Evaluation and Areas of Significance and subsequently prepares a Statement of Significance. The nomination form is prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office and the National Park Service for review by the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council and final designation by the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places.
McGuire Igleski has listed over two dozen of Illinois’ historic sites and buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Downtowns of Oswego, Aledo, Rock Island, and Joliet, The Forum, Corron Farm, and the Potter & Barker Grain Elevator, among others. A few of McGuire Igleski’s recent National Register of Historic Places listings are highlighted below.
Greater Tabernacle Cathedral Photos: Will Quam
Statewide, Illinois
Greater Tabernacle Cathedral
Dedicated in 1890, Greater Tabernacle Cathedral consists of the former church and rectory of Holy Rosary Parish, Roseland’s first English-speaking territorial Catholic parish, and the mother parish for the community of Pullman. The church building was designed by the renowned and prolific Chicago architect Solon S. Beman and completed between 1886 and 1890. Beman designed an imposing and striking place of worship that imparted a sense of monumentality to the native prairie, which remained undeveloped and only dotted with farmsteads and frame cottages at the time of construction. Despite a shift in demographics and religious affiliation in the Roseland community over the last fifty years, the Church has remained a constant presence, serving as a center of religion, community, and culture for 133 years. The church continues to operate as a place of worship and community center under the Greater Tabernacle Cathedral.
United States Housing Corporation Historic District
The United States Housing Corporation (USHC) Historic District is nationally significant, as it represents one of the first instances where the federal government directly involved itself in building non-military, permanent housing for civilians. While most USHC projects were canceled or sharply cut back following Armistice Day, these houses represent a large project that was fully completed. The Rock Island District was the westernmost and the largest of the four Midwest USHC projects, and its house designs directly reflected regional residential typologies and popular architectural styles of the time. Locally, the district, in conjunction with the war industries of the Tri-Cities, illustrates the region as a historically significant industrial center and, specifically, a wartime production center and offers an interpretation of the lives of war workers of the era.
Muddy Waters House
Located in Chicago’s Kenwood Community Area, the Muddy Waters House was first built in 1891. Since its construction, the residence has always served as a two-flat; however, most notably, blues music legend McKinley Morganfield, commonly known by his stage name, Muddy Waters, owned and resided there from 1954 to 1973. Regarded as the “Father of Chicago blues,” Morganfield was one of the most important figures in the development of the distinctive electrified sound that blended Delta blues with amplification to create a powerful new urban blues genre unique to Chicago. Morganfield’s home on Lake Park Avenue not only served as his family’s residence but also as a rehearsal space and studio for his band, giving the residence its nickname as the “House of Blues.”