Champaign-Urbana properties listed in National Register of Historic Places

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Two properties in Champaign-Urbana were listed in the National Register of Historic Places recently by the National Park Service, a designation that places them on the nation's most prestigious list of places with historical significance.

 

            "A National Register listing is an honor bestowed upon our most significant historic places," said Robert Coomer, director of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA), which administers the National Register program in Illinois.  "These properties in Champaign-Urbana, a shopping mall, hotel and an electric railway station, make us justifiably proud of our heritage in Illinois."

 

            Director Coomer was joined by local and state officials at the Lincoln Square Mall in Urbana today to officially recognize these national designations.

 

            "Urbana's Lincoln Square Mall and Hotel have long been a symbol of our community.  It is still a great place to visit with the weekly farmer's market, to walk and meet residents in the community, or dine in a fine restaurant," said State Rep. Naomi Jakobsson (D-Urbana).   

 

 

Plans to develop a shopping mall in a nine-block area in Urbana immediately south of Main Street began in 1959, with actual groundbreaking in 1963.  With Carson Pirie Scott and Company as the anchor, the Lincoln Square Mall was built to offer automobile-driving customers a place to park and do the majority of their shopping in one area.  From the beginning, the mall's design kept several existing structures, including the 1923 Urbana-Lincoln Hotel with its main entrance becoming part of the mall.  Lincoln Square featured 274,000 square feet of retail space plus an open light-filled, climate-controlled central area that was intended to draw shoppers inward - this has become a standard design feature of shopping malls today, but was a novel idea at the time.  It was the first downstate enclosed shopping mall and only the second in Illinois.  The architect, Victor Gruen, is nationally significant for his mall designs, concepts and urban planning in the 1960s.  Grand opening ceremonies for the mall were held September 17, 1964 with Governor Otto Kerner and U.S. Senators Paul H. Douglas and Everett M. Dirksen among the featured speakers.  The Lincoln Square Mall and Urbana-Lincoln Hotel are considered to have historical significance because of their close ties to community planning and development in downtown Urbana.

 

           

            The 1913 Illinois Traction Building was the headquarters and terminal of a regional electrified railway system that served Danville, Champaign/Urbana, Bloomington, Peoria, Decatur, Springfield, St. Louis, and towns in between.  The terra cotta and red brick building designed by local architect Joseph Royer was strikingly different than other buildings he had designed in the city, including many University of Illinois fraternity and sorority houses, the Champaign Country Club, and the Urbana-Lincoln Hotel.  William McKinley (no relation to the U.S. President), the owner of Urbana's electric power plant, purchased the city's street railway system in 1890 and electrified it, forming the Danville, Urbana and Champaign Railway, Gas and Electric Company.  He formed a syndicate to acquire streetcar systems in many cities in Illinois and Indiana, then built power plants to service them.  McKinley's scheme developed into the Illinois Traction System, which provided electric railway and streetcar service throughout central Illinois.  The 1913 Illinois Traction Building was constructed at the height of the railway's success and served both as offices and a passenger depot.  The Illinois Traction System became the Illinois Terminal Railroad in 1928, streetcars were phased out in 1936, and inter-city electric train service ended in 1955.  The Illinois Traction Building was occupied by Illinois-Iowa Power Company in 1937, which became Illinois Power Company in 1947.  The utility maintained offices there until 1985.