Jacksonville is known for its history — and that history is reflected in the number of local properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Including Woodlawn Farm east of the city, the Jacksonville area has ten National Register listings.
They include the Governor Duncan Mansion, Beecher Hall at Illinois College, the Jacksonville Public Library, Morgan County Courthouse, the Jacksonville Labor Temple, the Ayers Bank Building, the General Benjamin Henry Grierson House, the Jacksonville Historic District, the Jacksonville Downtown Historic District, and Woodlawn Farm, which was the latest addition added in 2007.
The National Register isn’t a permanent guarantee for a building to stick around. Jacksonville once had another building on the Register. The Jacksonville State Hospital Main Building, at 1201 S. Main Street, was placed on the register in 1975 but was removed when the Kirkbride-style building was demolished in 1984.
It takes a lot of work to get properties included on the registry.
Quinn Adamowski of Landmarks Illinois tells RFD-Illinois that private owners generally remain free to make changes to their properties: “If I’m a property owner-I can be a homeowner, I can be a commercial building owner-and my building is on the National Register of Historic Places, I can basically do whatever I want with [my property] unless I’m using federal or state money. Then, there is a review process. But the point I am making is that by being on the National Register does not stop you from doing anything with your property at all. And then, we look at it as a planning tool, right? Especially when we are talking about downtown commercial districts, because if you are a community that applies for a district, you don’t get one building on the National Register-all of your buildings within that district go on the Register. Now that opens up the opportunity for financial incentives. There is state historic tax credits that are available for commercial properties. We’ve seen those used across the country that without [the credits], these buildings would probably still be sitting vacant.”
For Jacksonville, the National Register provides formal recognition of the community’s architectural and cultural history — while potentially giving owners another tool to preserve and reinvest in historic properties. There are over 2,000 Illinois properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places.