The Marine Chapter House is a historic building located on Silver Street in

Marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

, Illinois. The building was constructed between 1909 and 1910 as a meetinghouse for Marine's chapter of the

American Woman's League The American Woman's League was created by the magazine publisher Edward Gardner Lewis in 1907. In part, it was a maneuver to lower History of United States postage rates, postal rates by appealing to educational and social opportunities that would ...

. The American Woman's League was a political and social organization founded by magazine publisher

Edward Gardner Lewis Edward Gardner Lewis (March 4, 1869 – August 10, 1950) was an American magazine publisher, land development promoter, and political activist. He was the founder of two planned communities that are now cities: University City, Missouri, and Atasc ...

in 1908. The organization was created to promote

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

causes, particularly the women's suffrage movement; Lewis also intended for the organization to promote and sell his women's magazines. Lewis commissioned the St. Louis architectural firm of

Helfensteller, Hirsch & Watson Helfensteller, Hirsch & Watson was an early twentieth-century American architectural firm from St. Louis, Missouri. It succeeded Hirsch and Helfensteller which had been founded in 1903. The firm's partners included Ernest Helfensteller, William A ...

to design five classes of buildings which the League would use as meetinghouses. The Marine Chapter House is an example of a Class I building, which was designed for clubs with 30 to 60 members. The building was designed in the

Prairie School Prairie School is a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in ...

style and cost $1,200. After the club disbanded, the building was converted to a library. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 28, 1980. It is one of nine American Woman's League chapter houses on the National Register in Illinois.

References

National Register of Historic Places in Madison County, Illinois Prairie School architecture in Illinois Buildings and structures completed in 1909 Buildings and structures in Madison County, Illinois Women's club buildings in Illinois Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois History of women in Illinois Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois {{MadisonCountyIL-NRHP-stub