herr2ck: Aurora Trip, pt. 4

June 2025.

This continuation of Aurora’s Broadway Historic District resumes on North Broadway from Galena Boulevard. Though this area lacks large landmarks like the Aurora National Bank or German-American Bank, the historic fabric of the street is more intact.

Brady Block

This is a simple Commercial style building, probably dating to c. 1920 or so. The placement of the stone with the building’s name engraved is rather odd, between two window sills on the third floor.

Hotel Arthur/Traction Terminal Building

Historic view of the hotel building. (discoveringaurora on Instagram)

Hotel Arthur was built in 1905 by architect Eugene Malmer (who studied under William Le Baron Jenney) in the Renaissance Revival style. It was commissioned by businessman John Knell and named for his brother Arthur. When it was completed, it became Aurora’s tallest building. A four-story addition was built onto the rear immediately afterwards, as the hotel space was quickly determined to be inadequate, and two stories were added in the following years.

In 1914, the Chicago, Aurora, & Elgin Railroad Company purchased the building. It became a traction terminal, which is a train station that serves streetcars/light rail. They made changes to the first floor to accommodate passengers. The railroad’s lease ended 20 years later in 1935, and the first floor held small businesses afterwards.

These new tenants would make alterations to the original building. The first floor’s facade received a new Art Moderne treatment in 1937, and the interior of that area was also altered many times. The upper floors remained intact at the time the NRHP listing was written around 2004, probably due to most tenants leaving the office space by the 1960s.

Note how the addition has a different shade of brick and fenestration than the original facade. Additionally, its cornice is pressed metal instead of limestone. Subtle features such as string courses and a different brick bond on the top floor emphasize different parts of the building.

The rear has a ghost sign likely dating to 1947, when Feltman and Curme’s shoe store opened:

The first floor most recently held the Broadway Restaurant, but it remains vacant today. The office space above has been converted to apartments and all original finishes have been removed except the wood floors.

4-8 North Broadway

This group of three is a great example of how simple Gilded Age facades liven up the streetscape. 4 features a large arch in the middle of its otherwise flat facade (though it appears to have had a peaked gable that has since been removed), a rather Sullivanesque move, and inside the windows are detailed with a tympanum and pediment. 6 has a similar move with its rounded bay window, but unlike the former it has a denticulated cornice above with brickwork below. 8 is the most elaborate of the three, having pinnacles that rise between each bay and pierce the building’s parapet, as well as corner piers that do the same. Each relies on its neighbors, yet contrasts meaningfully with them and creates a rhythm across the streetscape.

4 had some funny graffiti:

6 has this old floor in its entrance from a long-gone tenant:

Its corner door also has the even older original mosaic tile:

10 North Broadway

A tall, thin Commercial style building with Beaux-Arts detailing, 10 North Broadway features its original storefront pilasters and lintel, as well as brick vaulting and a denticulated cornice above.

14-16 North Broadway

I got this picture of tile from a mid-century tenant, possibly a department/clothing store. The rest of the building isn’t very interesting, though.

15 North Broadway

An orthodox Italianate, this one dates a couple decades before its Victorian surroundings. It retains its original wooden cornice and stone hood molds.

20 North Broadway

20 North Broadway still has its original wooden windows and glass block transoms.

21-23 North Broadway

These two units were probably identical when they were built, but the southern portion has had its cornice and drip molds removed. The end result has an interesting effect with the paint above.

Danary Building + 26-28 North Broadway

This Italianate trio features three meaningfully different buildings in the style. Each shares stone hood molds and a corbeled cornice, but the ornamentation varies on each. The leftmost building has a sign on its facade that labels it as the Danary Building and its construction date as 1885.

25 North Broadway

Not much to write home about here, just a relatively intact Italianate building.

Eberly Block

This is probably my favorite building across the entire street. Unusually detailed compared to its neighbors, its fanciful ornamentation shows Beaux-Arts influence in rare dark masonry. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any history.

What makes this building successful to me is its great depth and quality of ornament. Much of its neighbors have largely flat brick surfaces interrupted by windows, but the Eberly Block has various recesses across its facade that subtly emphasize the two bays and decorative central panel. Additionally, its excellent quality and quantity of decoration signals that the owner did not cheap out on its construction.

30 North Broadway

It’s odd how similar this one is to 10 North Broadway down the street. It lacks the contrasting colors of brick and date engraving, but it has two pilasters on either side of the two bays. Its original glass block bulkheads are intact but have recently been obscured.

32 North Broadway

An otherwise boring Italianate missing its cornice, I liked the fancy original mosaic tile in the entrance.

Broadway Trust & Savings Bank

Some renovation that recently occurred peeled the entire north facade off this building, revealing the CMU bearing walls behind. The stone (plaster/stucco here? the mortar joints are only an illusion) facades of these kinds of banks are almost always a veneer, but it’s unusual for the backing material to be displayed unless the owner was really cheapo.

Aurora Regional Fire Museum/Old Central Fire Station

Historic postcard of the Central Fire Station. Note its missing neighbors. (Aurora Regional Fire Museum)

The eclectic 1894 Central Fire Station was designed by Aurora architect James E. Minott. It incorporates Romanesque Revival vaulting and fenestration on the first floor, late Italianate/Beaux-Arts details on the smaller second floor windows and cornice, Queen Anne oriel windows, and of course a crowning onion dome. (Minott also designed the Hobbs Building, which sports a similar dome.) Its rear tower even stands today, which is unusual for buildings of its age.

Aurora’s prior fire station stood at Main Street (Galena Boulevard today), and it was apparently falling apart at the seams. However, an early Aurora Daily Beacon article describes the new building as “...beautiful and commodious…a model of its kind and a home of which [the firefighters] may justly feel proud. If there are any finer structures for the purpose in the state of Illinois, Aurora people don't know where they are located. In respect to cost, finish, appearance, convenience and good taste, there is nothing additional to wish for. The building, which everybody has watched grow to its present graceful proportions, might be the pride of any city.”

The fire station with its new motorized fire engines. (Aurora Regional Fire Museum)

The building was changed many times over the years as Aurora grew and the firefighting profession developed. Its eight original horse stalls were demolished after the horse-drawn fire engines were replaced, and the hayloft became a new kitchen and rec area. The garage’s wooden floor was replaced with concrete in 1920 to support the new engines as well.

Its most significant exterior changes were the removal of the dome and bay windows in 1943, both to provide materials for World War II manufacturing and as a modernization attempt. The fire station’s fenestration was also altered many times through the following decades. Aurora eventually outgrew the building by the 1970s, as the structure immediately south was used for training and sleeping, and a new 1979 ladder truck couldn’t fit through the vaulted doors. Aurora’s current fire station was built next door in 1981.

Aurora’s fire museum was established earlier in 1966, and it opened in the basement of Fire Station 4 in 1968. When the old Central Fire Station couldn’t find a buyer, preservationists successfully lobbied for the restoration of the building and for its use by the museum. A special organization was created to restore the station in 1987, but much work was needed. Beyond its missing features on the exterior, the original wood floors were covered, the interior was landlord-specialed with many layers of paint, and the roof leaked. The museum opened in the newly restored station in 1990. The city received another grant in 2000 to complete foundation work and refabricate the missing exterior details. Now fully restored, the Aurora Regional Fire Museum reopened for good in 2004.