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

Aurora, Illinois Aurora is a city in northeastern Illinois, United States. It is located along the Fox River (Illinois River tributary), Fox River west of Chicago. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, second-most populous city in Illinois, with a popul ...

, United States. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1982.

History

In 1915, a group of businessmen in

Aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

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 Stolp Island, 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, Illinois, Aurora, B ...

, 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 List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

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

The hotel is rectangular in shape. The exterior is brick and Indiana limestone. There is a

light court In architecture, a lightwell,light well, light-well sky-well,skywell, sky well or air shaft is an unroofed or roofed external space provided within the volume of a large building to allow light and air to reach what would otherwise be a dark or u ...

in the west facade, creating an indentation. The building is roughly . The first floor is a limestone

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

, 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 ...

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, 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 with non-sloped ...

. 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