The Chick House is a former hotel building constructed in 1857 in the city of Rockford,

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

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. The building's construction was financed by three Rockford citizens and it operated as a hotel from its opening until 1951. The hotel was purchased by Thomas Chick in 1888 and he renamed it from the Griggs House to the Chick House. In 2004 the city of Rockford purchased two-thirds of the building and made some modifications to the structure. The building is a mesh between the

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

and

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

styles and feature simple ornamentation that contrasts with a neighboring building. The Chick House is a Rockford Landmark and was listed on the U.S.

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 ...

in 1997.

History

The Chick House is located in present-day downtown Rockford, Illinois, directly across the street from the

Rockford MetroCentre The BMO Center (formerly known as BMO Harris Bank Center and Rockford MetroCentre) is a multi-purpose arena located in downtown Rockford, Illinois. It is currently home to the AHL's Rockford IceHogs hockey team. The arena formerly served as th ...

. The Chick House was constructed in 1857 under the name Griggs House on the northwest corner of Main and Elm Streets in downtown Rockford. Its construction was financed by three Rockford residents, Dr. R.P. Lane, and two bankers, Thomas D. Robertson, and Charles H. Spafford. From its construction, the building operated as the Griggs House

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

. Thomas Chick purchased the building in 1888 and rechristened the hotel as the Chick House. Through the early 1900s parts of the building was occupied by various tenants as Chick leased out space, and Chick rented out space in adjacent buildings to supply additional lodging space for the Chick House hotel. Rates at the Chick House, in 1902, started at

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1.50 per day, compared to the Nelson House at $2.00 per day; the Nelson House opened in Rockford in 1892.Illinois Farmers Institute. ''Annual Report'',
Google Books
, The Institute: 1902, p. 13. Retrieved 20 September 2007. In 1903 the ''Rockford Morning Star'' called the Chick House and the Nelson House the leading hotels in Rockford. The same article noted the popularity of the Chick House with commercial travelers, regular boarders, and Sunday diners. In 1923, Thomas Chick's widow sold the Chick House to John A. Saye of

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

.Johnson, Eric. ''Rockford, IL 1900–WWI'',
Google Books
, Arcadia Publishing: 2003 p. 12, (). Retrieved 20 September 2007.Olafson, Valerie.
Chick House
" ( PDF), National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, 8 July 1996, HAARGIS Database, ''Illinois Historic Preservation Agency''. Retrieved 20 September 2007. The Chick House, considered one of Rockford's resident hotels, was one of 23 hotels, and the oldest in the city when it sold in 1923. The Chick House remained in operation until 1928. The building was sold and closed for a time for renovations. During its closure, an office supply store, hardware store, and shoe store occupied the east end of the structure. In 1929 the hotel reopened under the name Elms Hotel, it remained in operation as such until 1951. In 2004, the city of Rockford purchased two-thirds of the Chick House intending to redevelop the historic property.Bernard, Jackie.
Rockford Historic Preservation Commission Meeting Minutes
" ( PDF), 14 December 2004, ''Rockford Historic Preservation Commission''. Retrieved 20 September 2007. In October the city shut off gas and water, in part because of an old

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...

which would not survive another winter; the electricity remained on during this time.Bernard, Jackie.
Rockford Historic Preservation Commission Minutes
, ( pDF), 5 October 2004, ''Rockford Historic Preservation Commission''. Retrieved 20 September 2007. The city set about to make immediate repairs to prevent the building from deteriorating structurally. The work included the installation of

Plexiglas Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite ...

windows to keep further moisture out, the installation of a green

awning An awning or overhang is a secondary covering attached to the exterior wall of a building. It is typically composed of canvas woven of acrylic, cotton or polyester yarn, or vinyl laminated to polyester fabric that is stretched tightly over a li ...

on the east facade which wraps around to the south slightly, and repairs to the

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...

wall.

Architecture

The Chick House's design is simple and utilitarian, reflecting its construction for use as a hotel. The three-story brick structure's 66 foot (20.1 m) east facade faces Main Street and its 149-foot (45.4 m) south facade faces toward Elm Street. The building incorporates elements from

and

styles and presents itself as an architectural " antithesis" to the adjacent Richardson Romanesque Stewart Building. The Chick House originally has an " L" shape but additions during the 1890s, 1900s and in 1932 partially filled in the rear of the building, which faces toward an

alley An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane, path, or passageway, often reserved for pedestrians, which usually runs between, behind, or within buildings in the older parts of towns and cities. It is also a rear access or service road (back lane ...

. The utilitarian design of the Chick House is accented by simple decorative touches in the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Revival style. The style is most overt in the building's symmetry which is particularly emphasized by certain elements. Those include the steeped parapet, its windows, horizontal stone sills and lintels, and

dentil A dentil (from Lat. ''dens'', a tooth) is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice. Dentils are found in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and also in later styles such as Neoclassical, Federal, Georgian R ...

moldings. The building's meshing of Greek Revival and Italianate styles illustrates the rising popularity of the Italianate style during the 1850s and the shift from Greek Revival to Italianate.The pattern books of

Andrew Jackson Downing Andrew Jackson Downing (October 31, 1815 – July 28, 1852) was an American landscape designer, horticulturist, and writer, a prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival in the United States, and editor of ''The Horticulturist'' magazine (1846–5 ...

helped increase the popularity of the Italianate style throughout the 1840s and 1850s. The style grew out of the Picturesque movement, along with Gothic Revival in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. See Olafson, "Chick House." The narrow front facade windows and the brick corbel table

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

at the cornice are two elements of Italianate incorporated into the building. The Romanesque and Italianate detailing is emphasized within the front facade

fenestration Fenestration may refer to: * Fenestration (architecture), the design, construction, or presence of openings in a building * Used in relation to fenestra in anatomy, medicine and biology * Fenestration, holes in the rudder A rudder is a primar ...

as well. The windows contain segmental arches and

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impur ...

hood mold In architecture, a hood mould, hood, label mould (from Latin ''labia'', lip), drip mould or dripstone, is an external moulded projection from a wall over an opening to throw off rainwater, historically often in form of a ''pediment''. This mouldin ...

Significance

The Chick House is one of three remaining pre-Civil War commercial buildings in downtown Rockford. It is also the only fully intact example of mid-19th century architecture in the city of Rockford. The only other two pre-Civil War commercial buildings in Rockford are located on the east side of the Rock River and have had extensive alterations to their front facades. The Chick House is the only building in the trio that has maintained its historic integrity, and the only 19th century Rockford hotel building still standing. The buildings

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

and its importance to the commerce of the city of Rockford led the U.S.

to approve its nomination on February 7, 1997. The Chick House is also listed as a local Rockford Landmark by the Rockford Historic Preservation Commission.Landmarks
, ''Rockford Historic Preservation Commission'', City of Rockford. Retrieved 20 September 2007.

Notes

External links

" from the ''Saratoga News'' (

Saratoga, California Saratoga is a city in Santa Clara County, California. Located in Silicon Valley, in the southern Bay Area, its population was 31,051 at the 2020 census. Saratoga is an affluent residential community, known for its wineries, restaurants, and attra ...

), concerning a Chick family relative. {{National Register of Historic Places Houses completed in 1857 Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Buildings and structures in Rockford, Illinois National Register of Historic Places in Winnebago County, Illinois 1857 establishments in Illinois