May-June 2025.
Stolp Avenue is Aurora’s principal north-south street downtown. Many of the city’s most important buildings either lie on or border the street. I’ve covered some in their own articles, such as the Keystone Building, Elks Lodge, and Leland Tower. This article seeks to document the remainder. I’ll start at the south terminus, where the street ends at Benton Street, and proceed northward.
Old Aurora Public Library [missed]
Historic photo of the library’s original exterior. (HMDB)
If this building looked like it used to, I wouldn’t have skipped it. I didn’t even know Aurora’s old public library even still stood, because its current appearance is a relatively boring office building.
Aurora’s library traces its beginnings to the Young Men’s Literary Association of Aurora, which was created in 1859 from a merger of the Young Men’s Literary & Historical Society and the Young Men’s Association. The Aurora Library Association was founded five years later and took possession of the former’s books. The actual Aurora Public Library was established by the city in 1881, and it was housed in the original Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Hall.
The library’s current home was built in 1904 by architects W. A. Otis of Chicago and Eugene Malmer of Aurora in the Beaux-Arts style. It was pretty simple in its design, a rectangle in plan with a projecting pedimented entrance. It was a Carnegie library, as Andrew Carnegie provided a $50,000 grant for its construction.
Aurora residents surrounding the library when it closed in 2019. (Aurora Beacon-News)
Between 1966 and 1969, the library was completely remodeled by O. Kleb and Associates, receiving a Modernist facade. It isn’t awful, but I didn’t find it interesting enough to photograph without knowing what the building was, and knowing what’s beneath makes it even worse. It is considered an “intrusion” by the NRHP listing due to the obfuscation of its historic characteristics. An addition was built onto the rear of the library as well. Interestingly, the library never fully closed during the construction work. The Aurora Public Library moved to its existing building at River Street and Benton Street in June 2019, and this one is used as an office building today.
Illinois Bell Building
1931 photo of the exterior, taken by the Hedrich-Blessing photography firm. (Chicago History Museum)
This stalwart Art Moderne building once held the offices of the Illinois Bell telephone company within Aurora. The source for the above image states that the photo was taken for the Chicago firm Holabird & Root, so it may have been designed by them. The original building appears to date c. 1930.
I’m not sure when the addition was added, but given the mismatched concrete and tiny windows, my guess is the 1960s or 1970s. The building is used by AT&T today.
Conservatory Building
A circa 1907 Beaux-Arts building composed of cast concrete meant to resemble stone, the Conservatory Building originally held Aurora’s Columbia Conservatory of Music. It was considered to be one of the best schools in Illinois at the time and taught various subjects, such as dancing, art, music, and education.
One source claims the conservatory opened in 1925 and closed in 1986, and that the building also housed the Red Cross and the Girl Scouts’ regional office. However, the NRHP listing for the Stolp Island Historic District says it closed in 1937 instead.
This building is pretty intact for its age, sporting its original ornamentation and glass block bulkheads above the storefronts, though the windows have all been replaced.
Assell’s Photo Shop/41 South Stolp Avenue
This Commercial style building dates to 1917, as indicated by the datestone. With subtle terra-cotta ornament, it is the more elaborate of the “matching set” made with its neighbor. It was listed in the historic district as “Assell’s Photo Shop,” though that tenant seems to be long gone.
The storefronts have been altered, but the surrounding pilasters remain intact. Additionally, a sign from an older tenant lies above the entrance.
A small cornice juts over the second floor’s windows, featuring proto-Art Deco geometric ornament. I believe the windows are original wooden sashes, though they have been painted in a trendy black color.
37 South Stolp Avenue
Unlike the terra-cotta tiles of its neighbor, this building is instead composed of white glazed brick. Its subtle ornamentation takes the form of two string-courses capped by Sullivanesque panels.
The roofline is simple, slightly parapeted but not decorated:
Isle Theater/Old Moose Building [demolished]
1980s photo of the building. (NRHP listing)
This white terra-cotta building was built in 1914 as a Moose lodge, and an addition was built in 1919. The Isle Theater opened in the building in 1938. It apparently outlasted many of Aurora’s other small theaters, though it went down the typical downward spiral of second-run movies to X-rated stuff during the last few years of its life. It closed in either 1982 or 1988 (my sources conflict), and the building was demolished for the construction of Millennium Plaza.
Millennium Plaza
This park, with its massive monolith, was built around 2000 to replace the Isle Theater. It seems pretty popular, but the city plans to remove the structure and renovate the park within the next two years. I know the park is kind of clunky due to the odd site, but I do wish they’d keep the obelisk.
Stanley Furniture Store/Paramount School of the Arts
These two buildings, originally known as the Stanley Furniture store, were combined into one for their current use by the Paramount School of the Arts. Built in 1925, the southernmost store is deliberately creamier in color. (I thought they used two batches that aged differently.)
Employing classical ornamentation, these buildings have Chicago School expression and fenestration. They are identical apart from their coloration.
I’d imagine these voids on the parapet originally held a sign with the buildings’ name or date of construction:
Cornice and corbel detail:
These ornamental forms appear to be abstracted anthemia and triglyphs, as the entablature of a Doric temple would appear. Given its late construction, deviation from the established classical precepts was common at the time.
I found the moment where the two buildings meet to be very interesting compositionally:
These lion heads on the piers originally served as mounts for the stores’ canopies:
These two buildings were acquired by Waubonsee Community College in 1986 and combined into a larger complex with the Block & Kuhl Store next door. Today, they are used by the Paramount Theatre’s school of the arts.
Block & Kuhl Store/Carson’s
1960s photo of the exterior as Carson Pirie Scott & Co. (City of Aurora on Facebook)
At the corner of Stolp Avenue and Galena Boulevard is the fanciful Block & Kuhl store, an interesting union of Chicago School and Beaux-Arts architecture. It housed Carson’s after Block & Kuhl’s was acquired by them, and today it is occupied by a restaurant and lofts.
Block & Kuhl’s origins can be traced back to 1863-1864, when the C. Bonk & Co. dry goods store was founded by Bonk and his partner John H. Schipper. After Bonk’s death, Henry Block became a partner, and the store was renamed to Schipper & Block, Co. Their store was located in Pekin, Illinois.
The company continued to expand, eventually building a second store in 1879, and in 1905 constructed their flagship store in Peoria. This was the first steel building in downtown Peoria. Aurora’s branch was built in 1928 by the Aurora Development Company.
By 1959, Block & Kuhl had 20 different locations--18 in Illinois, and two in Iowa. However, the business was sold to Carson Pirie Scott & Co. in 1961, and the stores were rebranded to Carson’s locations. This store was remodeled when they took it over.
The Carson’s in Aurora presumably either vacated the building or went out of business, as it was acquired in 1986 with the Stanley Furniture Store by Waubonsee Community College and converted into the college’s extension. Today, the building is used as lofts on the second and third floor, and a restaurant occupies the ground floor. This adaptive reuse project was completed by Cordogan Clark & Associates in 2020.
This building is very intact for its age. Its elaborate ornamentation is in perfect condition across the facade, and often-lost features such as the glass block bulkheads above the storefronts remain. The only missing exterior features are a balustrade and pier extension along the roofline. Any modernizations to the exterior have been made tastefully, however, all historic features inside have been removed years ago.
Yeah, this one probably could have had its own post, but there wasn’t really too much history. My photos outnumber the amount of text I could reasonably squeeze in.
You honestly could tell me this building was built a year ago and I’d believe you. It’s crazy how clean and intact the masonry and ornamentation is.
I really like when historic buildings use similar motifs in their decoration with subtle differences--it makes nerds like me linger more and play “spot the difference” between different panels:
What a great quality of architecture. The innumerable decorative patterns undoubtedly took a great deal of work, and they provide a richness and depth to the facade.
Aurora seems to have had some interesting buildings north of Galena Boulevard, such as what the Sanborn map calls the “Aurora Beacon Publishing Co.” and “Third Infantry Regiment Armory,” but I couldn’t find anything about either online.
My next post covers the North Broadway Historic District. A lot more buildings to see, but less prose on the architecture than this one.
Sources:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4104am.g017201950/?sp=25&st=image&r=0.419,-0.013,0.536,0.281,0
https://collections.carli.illinois.edu/digital/collection/chm_pp/id/1623/
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=170246
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2015/05/25/old-aurora-public-library-building-closes-for-good/
https://thevoice.us/history-recalled-of-buildings-on-stolp-avenue-in-aurora/
https://cclfchicago.org/art-has-a-home-in-aurora/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_%26_Kuhl
https://archello.com/project/aurora-arts-center
https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/4216
https://www.instagram.com/p/CmX5ugjOZqU/?img_index=1
https://www.hitchcockdesigngroup.com/portfolio/millennium-plaza/
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