300 South Broadway Avenue

Tudor Revival and Modern architectural styles

Plans to develop a shopping mall in a nine-block area in Urbana immediately south of Main Street began in 1959, with actual ground-breaking in 1963.  With Carson Pirie Scott and Company as the anchor store, 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 incorporated several existing structures, including the 1923 Joseph Royer designed, Urbana-Lincoln Hotel.  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 first enclosed shopping mall, Randhurst, was demolished.)  The architect, Victor Gruen, is nationally known for his mall designs, concepts and urban planning in the 1960s.  The Lincoln Square Mall and Urbana-Lincoln Hotel are considered to have national significance because of their close ties to community planning and development in downtown Urbana and their high degree of historical integrity–a rare feature in shopping malls.  The buildings were built by Almon W. Stoolman (hotel) and George Fuller (mall). 

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 8, 2006 for significance in  (#6000778).  Also known as Historic Lincoln Hotel and New Lincoln Square Village.

1209 West Oregon Street

Tudor Revival, Bungalow/Craftsman, Gothic

Designed by C.F. Smith and Walter C. Root.  Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 13, 1991 for significance in Architecture (#91000572).  Also known as the Channing Murray Foundation.

706 West Ohio Street

Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival architectural style 

Originally built in 1928  for the Delta Beta chapter of the Phi Mu sorority, this house is now the home of the Beta Sigma Psi fraternity.  It is rather unique in its Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival design, which is quite different from the usual French or English-derived designs of the other chapter houses.  It was built by the Crowl Construction Company at a cost of over $60,000.  The Delta Chapter of Phi Mu was inactive during WWII, and in 1946 the house was occupied by Le Treinto Student House.  Later, in 1954, the Phi Sigma Delta fraternity moved in and, since 1969, the house has been the home of the Beta Sigma Psi fraternity.  Beta Sigma Psi was established in 1925 at the University of Illinois with the Alpha Chapter; it was the outgrowth of a local group, the Concordia Club and is affiliated with the Lutheran Church.  The Depression and WWII were hard on the chapter and it was not reactivated until 1955.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 21, 1990 for significance in Education and Architecture (#9000751; part of Fraternity and Sorority Houses at the Urbana-Champaign Campus of the University of Illinois Multiple Property nomination).  Also known as Delta Beta Chapter House of Phi Mu and Le Treinto Student House.

612 West Green Street

Queen Anne style

Nathan Clifford Ricker built this relatively modest home in 1892 and lived there until his death in 1924.  Ricker was the first graduate of a school of architecture in the United States and was instrumental in the establishment and development of the University of Illinois’ architecture program.  Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 21, 2000 for significance in Education and Architecture (#00000682).  Also listed as a Local Landmark on February 21, 2000.

1000 Block of South Race Street

The Lincoln Statue, located near the east entry of Carle Park, was created by renowned sculptor Lorado Zadok Taft.  Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 10, 2004 for significance in Art (#4000144).  Also known as The Young Circuit Lawyer, Lincoln the Lawyer, Young Lincoln, and Abraham Lincoln.

1102 South Lincoln Avenue

English Revival architectural style

Almost $100,000 was spent to construct the English Revival Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority house in 1928.  The Chicago architect, Ralph E. Milman of Howard van Doren Shaw Associates, designed this elegant stone structure that was constructed by local contractor A.W. Stoolman, builder of the Virginia Theater among other local buildings.  A dining room addition was added in 1959.  The sorority was founded at Monmouth College in 1870 with the Urbana chapter, Beta Lambda, organized in 1899.  The Kappa’s former house was at 809 S. Wright Street, Champaign; it was purchased by the University of Illinois, attached to Davenport House, and used as a women’s residence hall.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Placeson February 25, 2004 for significance in Education and Architecture (#4000074; part of Fraternity and Sorority Houses at the Urbana-Champaign Campus of the University of Illinois Multiple Property nomination).

303 West University Avenue

Greek Revival architectural style
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 20, 1977 for significance in Architecture (#77000473).  Also known as the Workman’s Cottage.

1110 West Nevada Street

Georgian Revival architectural style

The Omicron Chapter of Gamma Phi Beta was the fifteenth chapter of the sorority founded, but it was the only chapter with the distinction of having one of the original founders of the sorority, Mrs. Frances Haven Moss, as its founder.  This occurred in 1913.  WWI precluded new construction, so the sorority purchased an existing duplex at 1110 West Nevada in 1918 for their chapter house.  A building committee worked out plans with the Peoria architectural firm of Hewitt, Emerson and Gregg during 1926 for the remodeling of the house and, when completed, the original vernacular Four Square duplex had been enlarged and altered to become the elegant Georgian Revival building of today.  Additions were added to the building in 1951 and 1983.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 28, 1994 for significance in Education (#94001270; part of Fraternity and Sorority Houses at the Urbana-Champaign Campus of the University of Illinois Multiple Property nomination).  Also known as Omicron Chapter of Gamma Phi Beta.