Memorial Hall in

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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 ...

, US is a historic public building located in the village's primary business district. It was constructed in 1907 and has served as a focal point for community government and recreation. In 1993 Richmond Memorial Hall was added to the U.S. Register of Historic Places.

History

The Richmond Memorial Hall was built in 1907 with a

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10,000 bequest from Charles Dewitt McConnell, grandson of Richmond's first settler, William McConnell. The bequest was filed in McConnell's

will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

on September 3, 1903 and by 1905 the village had organized a committee to begin investigating a site to build Memorial Hall. McConnell's will called for a city or village hall to be built and used for government administration and for school and church activities free of charge. In the 1930s, Memorial Hall housed the J.B. Rotnour Troupe, providing entertainment for the town, but the building has also served as the village hall, police department, community library, a school gymnasium and a home for the American Legion.Official site of Richmond, Illinois. Accessed November 12, 2008. The village government's offices have since moved to a different location at 5600 Hunter Drive.Gallagher, Christina J.
Memorial Hall
(

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

), National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, April 26, 1993, ''

Illinois Historic Preservation Agency The Illinois Historic Preservation Division, formerly Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of Illinois, and is a division of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. It is tasked with the duty of m ...

'', accessed May 4, 2008. In April 2021 Memorial Hall was sold by the Village of Richmond to a private owner for the sum of $230,000 and the interior of the building is currently undergoing remodeling to facilitate its use for commercial purposes.

Architecture

The two story building has a total perimeter of 254

feet The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...

and has a full

basement A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...

. The building has an upper level

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...

, with lobby space, a closet, ticket office, stage and balcony. The ticket office remains in the front foyer, as do the two stairways leading up to the balcony. The

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d roof has

asphalt shingle An asphalt shingle is a type of wall or roof shingle that uses asphalt for waterproofing. It is one of the most widely used roofing covers in North America because it has a relatively inexpensive up-front cost and is fairly simple to install. ...

s. The orange-yellow brick facade is in good condition but the current metal doors are not original to the building. Fred Arp was the contracted builder used by the village of Richmond in 1907.

Historic significance

The building is locally significant for its association with the Richmond village government as government administrative offices. Memorial Hall has also served a long time entertainment function in Richmond, catering to a variety of groups over the years. Since its construction Memorial Hall has been a focal point and hub of the community in Richmond. On August 19, 1993 Richmond Memorial Hall was added to 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 v ...

References

External links

Property Information Report
Memorial Hall,

{{National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in McHenry County, Illinois Richmond, Illinois Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois