The Allentown Union Hall is a historic meeting hall located east of

Illinois Route 121 Illinois Route 121 (IL 121) is a major state highway in the central part of the U.S. state of Illinois. Although it travels from northwest to southeast, it is marked as a north–south highway.Sarjeant, CharlesIllinois 121. Retrieved ...

Allentown Allentown may refer to several places in the United States and topics related to them: * Allentown, California, now called Toadtown, California * Allentown, Georgia, a town in Wilkinson County * Allentown, Illinois, an unincorporated community in T ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. The building was built in 1892 to host community events in Allentown, a small rural settlement. Like many small communities nationwide at the turn of the century, the citizens of Allentown wished to expand their educational and cultural horizons; since rough dirt roads made travel outside the community difficult, the community used the hall to host its own cultural events. The Allentown Helping Hand Circle, the community organization that raised the money for the building, hosted many of the hall's early events, which included community dinners and talent shows. The hall also hosted shows put on both by actors and musicians from Allentown and the surrounding area and by traveling acts who stopped in the community. As the only large public building in the area, the town hall also served as a polling place, a clubhouse for women's clubs and fraternal organizations, a church for the community's religious groups, and an auditorium for the local school. The building was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on August 12, 1988.

References

Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Buildings and structures completed in 1892 National Register of Historic Places in Tazewell County, Illinois {{TazewellCountyIL-NRHP-stub