herr2ck: Aurora Trip, pt. 8

June 2025.

Finally, the last one! This post covers pretty much everything that didn’t fit well in my other articles.

Old Post Office/SciTech

Historic photo of the post office. (HMDB)

Aurora’s 1932 post office on Benton Street was built to replace the older 1895 building adjacent to old City Hall. It’s a pretty eclectic building long past the era where that was common in design--it features classical ornamentation and expression, but other decorative features like the eagle and string course are Art Deco, and gargoyles even line the space between windows. Interestingly, the wood floors were 2x4s cut into blocks with the cut side facing upwards, which was meant to make standing while sorting mail easier.

After Aurora’s post office moved in 1988, a science museum known as SciTech opened inside in 1990. I never visited but I was jealous of the kids who got to visit during field trips. Looking at the place’s Google reviews, the place seemed to have never been updated, and near the end several exhibits didn’t work. It closed during COVID, but the company still operates as a mobile museum.

The mixture of classical and Art Deco ornament:

I think these are real gargoyles, since the mouth has a little spout:

SciTech might be gone, but its signs still sit in the transom above the doors.

St. Mary’s Catholic Church

This congregation was founded in 1851. Its first church was damaged by a storm in 1852, and another was built by the pastor on the corner of Pine and Spruce Street. The second burnt down in 1869, and the present Gothic Revival church building was constructed in 1872.

The central portal:

Detail:

Its school was built in 1902 in the Beaux-Arts style and has since been converted to a parish center.

The rectory has been sold and is operated by a different church today:

First Presbyterian Church

Historic postcard of First Presbyterian. (CardCow)

The First Presbyterian congregation was founded in 1858. The first building on the site was built in 1871 (possibly the Gothic Revival building on the left in the above photo?) and was in use until 1916. The church’s website claims the existing church was built in 1901, which seems late for a Richardsonian Romanesque church.

An addition was made to the rear in 1916 for classrooms and a gym. Another annex was added in 1966 and the sanctuary was air-conditioned. Various additions have been built since, and today the end result is confusing. The original church made sense, but the differing styles (which still try to imitate the original church) take away from the intended eclectic yet clear nature.

I really love the round, short tower that seems to burst through the square brick surrounding it. The cupola above the crossing is long gone, however.

First United Methodist Church/Iglesia Cristiana Nueva Vida

First United Methodist’s congregation was founded in 1837, and this is their third church, which was built in 1872. The original spire was damaged in a storm in 1951 and removed, as well as the stained-glass after a fire in 1953.

The congregation saw a gradual decline of members over time. By the 2000s, there was barely a double-digit number, and many members were aging. Deferred maintenance taxed the church’s financial and physical reserves, and the congregation voted to close in 2011. The building is currently used by Iglesia Cristiana Nueva Vida, a Hispanic congregation.

St. Nicholas Catholic Church

A postcard of the church. (HipPostcard)

St. Nicholas’ may be Aurora’s most elaborate Gothic church. It was built in 1887, which was all I could really find about it online.

The principal facade with its massive tower:

The stone courses, base, and lintels add a nice touch of polychromy to the brick facade and dark iron tracery.

Though not as fancy as cathedral flying buttresses, these are still pretty large for the style:

This portal is such an interesting moment. The piers for the tower actually pierce the stonework around the arch, and the combination of different materials and details makes it very lively.

Detail of the tower’s little rose windows:

The spire rises high into the air and is very sharp (as I think Gothic architecture should be).

I really like these dark iron pinnacles too:

The church is surrounded by many auxiliary buildings, which is typical, but there’s a rather large amount here. First is what probably used to be the rectory, which is now the parish center/office:

The Corbusian school on piloti:

The parish hall is older and more Renaissance-y in style, probably dating to soon after the church’s construction:

Last is their Daleiden Center, which seems to be a modified house. I doubt the Prairie School windows are original.

St. Michael Romanian Byzantine Catholic Church

The 1909 original church. (St. Michael’s website)

This church’s spire is always the first thing I see heading into Aurora from the north. It was built for the city’s large influx of Romanian immigrants during the early 20th century. Its first building was completed in 1909, but only six years later it had already become too small.

The 1909 church was moved and used as a school, while this current Renaissance Revival building was constructed in 1916-1917. A fire in the basement in 1921 or 1922 caused smoke damage to the church. It was first renovated and repaired between 1936 and 1940, and it was cleaned and repainted in 1946.

In 1957, more interior renovations included new flooring, restoring the pews, and new marble trim. The existing rectory was built in 1963.

In 1986, the church was repainted again, and the masonry was tuck-pointed. The church seems to be in great condition today and is doing well for itself.

Sam and Ruth Van Sickle Ford House

Man, this is a weird one. Ruth Van Sickle Ford, who was a watercolor painter and the director of Chicago’s Academy of Fine Arts, commissioned architect Bruce Goff to design a home for her. The end result, completed in 1947, is an odd, retrofuturistic structure that incorporates highly eclectic materials and forms. (This was common of Goff’s architecture.)

The red metal ribs are part of the frame from a Quonset hut, a type of prefabricated building common during World War II. Other materials include wood shingles, cullet glass, and even coal.

A small decorative wall faces the road:

The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016, and it was recently designated a National Historic Landmark in 2023.

Masonic Temple [demolished]

Historic postcard of the building. (Old Postcards)

Aurora’s Masonic Temple was a large historic building, but it was neglected at the end of its life, which eventually led to its demise. The Freemasons met in various different buildings across town over their history, but after outgrowing one in 1910, they decided to build a structure for their exclusive use. It was designed by architect William Q. Bendus in the Beaux-Arts style, a rather literal interpretation of a classical temple with a massive, exaggerated frieze. Its construction began in 1921 and concluded in 1924.

The vacant Masonic Temple. (Curbed)

After being listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, the lodge sold the building later that decade, and it became a banquet facility. When it fully closed in 2006, deferred maintenance caught up to the Masonic Temple. Its ornament was damaged by the elements, and water damage caused interior issues. A Redditor says his architecture firm worked on a feasibility study for restoring it, and they discovered that the water damage and lack of insulation meant the interior would have to be completely gutted for the building to be reused.

The Temple after its 2019 fire. (Kane County Chronicle)

On October 7, 2019, the Masonic Building caught fire and was heavily damaged. It was ultimately demolished, though the Masonic ornamentation and the Ionic columns were saved.

Sources:

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=170200

https://www.goscitech.org/history

https://www.stmaryaurora.org/history/

https://www.firstpresaurora.org/who-are-we

https://www.cardcow.com/751669/aurora-illinois-first-presbyterian-church/

https://www.aurora.il.us/Recreation-and-Amenities/Art-Culture-and-History/Aurora-History/Aurora-An-Architectural-Portrait/Special-Interests#section-7

https://www.dailyherald.com/20110616/news/final-bell-tolling-for-auroras-first-united-methodist-church/

https://www.hippostcard.com/listing/illinois-aurora-st-nicholas-church/20765723

https://stnicholaschurch-aurorail.com/

https://www.stmichaelromanianchurch.org/_files/ugd/d1cd76_a44872fe1026457f9623cbb9046fd041.pdf

https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/IL-01-089-0079