The Hotel Aurora, also known as Aurora Hotel, is a hotel built in 1917 on

Stolp Island Stolp Island is a small island in the Fox River (Illinois River tributary), Fox River in Aurora, Illinois. In 1986 the island and its 41 buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Stolp Island Historic District. It ...

Aurora, Illinois Aurora is a city in the Chicago metropolitan area located partially in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage, Kane County, Illinois, Kane, Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall, and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Locat ...

, United States. It was listed 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 ...

in 1982.

History

In 1915, a group of businessmen in Aurora,

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 ...

determined that the city required a first-class hotel. They formed the Aurora Island Hotel Corporation to oversee the project; it was a branch of the Aurora Island Development Corporation. The site chosen was previously a mill race and swimming hole. Construction on the eight-story building began in 1916. It was the first skyscraper on

, Aurora's downtown. The 135-room hotel was opened for business on July 14, 1917. Edwin C. Faber, the general manager of the

Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad The Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad (CA&E), known colloquially as the "Roarin' Elgin" or the "Great Third Rail", was an interurban railroad that operated passenger and freight service on its line between Chicago and Aurora, Batavia, Geneva, St. ...

, was the president of the hotel. The structure was designed by H. Ziegler Dietz and built by George W. Caldwell of Caldwell & Marshall. Harry H. Dunbar took over operations in 1919. In 1928, he sold it to William O. Gosselin, who was in the process of building the Leland Hotel on the island. On June 3, 1982, it was listed on the

by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

. On September 10, 1986, it was listed as a contributing property to the Stolp Island Historic District.Illinois Historic Preservation Agency
/ref>

Architecture

The hotel is rectangular in shape. The exterior is brick and Indiana limestone. There is a light court in the west facade, creating an indentation. The building is roughly . The first floor is a limestone

piano nobile The ''piano nobile'' (Italian for "noble floor" or "noble level", also sometimes referred to by the corresponding French term, ''bel étage'') is the principal floor of a palazzo. This floor contains the main reception and bedrooms of the hou ...

, while the other floor exteriors are mostly brick. A stone course above the second story separates it from the other floors. The east and west facade feature five bays of windows (three are doubled), while the north and south feature seven (five doubled). On the west facade, which faces the Fox River, a two-story porch is cantilevered over the river. Entrances on Galena Boulevard and Stolp Avenue feature double cut limestone balconies with stone

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

s. The Stolp Avenue entrance leads to the main lobby. Inside, the lobby features a pink Tennessee marble floor with a Tennessee dark timber base. Fluted columns are made of black walnut. A grand staircase leads to a second floor

mezzanine A mezzanine (; or in Italian language, Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft ...

. The building is supported by reinforced concrete columns with flat slab construction.

North Island Apartments

After falling into disrepair, a community effort led to its renovation in 1996 as apartments for senior citizens, and the building's name was changed to the ''North Island Apartments''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aurora, Hotel Hotels established in 1917 Hotel buildings completed in 1917 Hotel Aurora Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Hotel Aurora Hotel Aurora