The Principia College Historic District is a

National Historic Landmark District National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

encompassing the central portion of the campus of

Principia College Principia College (Principia or Prin) is a private liberal arts college in Elsah, Illinois. It was founded in 1912 by Mary Kimball Morgan with the purpose of "serving the Cause of Christian Science." "Although the College is not affiliated wit ...

Elsah, Illinois Elsah is a village in Jersey County, Illinois. As of the 2020 census, the village had a total population of 519. Michael Pitchford is the village's current acting mayor. It is the home of Principia College. Elsah is a part of the Metro-East reg ...

. The campus master plan, as well as eleven of its buildings, are important late designs of architect

Bernard Maybeck Bernard Ralph Maybeck (February 7, 1862 – October 3, 1957) was an American architect in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 20th century. He was an instructor at University of California, Berkeley. Most of his major buildings were in ...

, best known for his influential architecture in the American West.

The Principia The Principia is an educational institution for Christian Scientists located on two campuses in the St. Louis, Missouri metropolitan area of the United States. Principia School, located in Town and Country, West St. Louis County, serves studen ...

was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1993,. and was also placed on 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 ...

that same year.

Description and history

was founded by Mary Kimball Morgan in 1898 as an educational institution primarily serving the needs of

Christian Scientists Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

. Beginning with primary and secondary schools, the organization (unaffiliated with the

Church of Christ, Scientist The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in 1879 in Boston, Massachusetts, by Mary Baker Eddy, author of '' Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,'' and founder of Christian Science. The church was founded "to commemorate the word an ...

but operating with its approval) established Principia College in the early 20th century. Initially based in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, the organization in the 1910s began to search for a suitable campus location for the college. A former country estate overlooking the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

just south of Elsah was purchased, and college president Frederic E. Morgan hired West Coast architect Bernard Maybeck to develop the campus master plan and buildings. Maybeck used the existing roads on the estate as a foundation, and laid out what resembles an English country village. The centerpiece and first permanent building of the campus is the chapel. It was built in 1931–34 in Maybeck's conception of an

American Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archit ...

structure, with a limestone exterior. Most of the other buildings Maybeck designed have steel frames and use concrete extensively inside, but have exteriors of stone, brick, and timbering. In the later phases of the campus construction, the onsite work was supervised by Henry Gutterson, who also contributed designs for several of the buildings. One architectural oddity on the campus is what is called the "Mistake House", which was used as a design and materials test vehicle by Maybeck.

References

External links

* {{National Register of Historic Places Geography of Jersey County, Illinois National Historic Landmarks in Illinois Principia College Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois National Register of Historic Places in Jersey County, Illinois

Description and history

See also

References

External links