herr2ck: Belvidere Trip, pt. 1 - North State Street

July 2025.

I visited Belvidere while I was home for the summer because of its quantity of intact, ornate commercial buildings dating to the Victorian era. Unfortunately, nothing really distinguished itself enough to warrant its own article, so my entire trip will be posted in a series of “dump articles.” This first post will be centered on North State Street and its historic district (and a few buildings beyond), which features simpler designs than the south side of State Street.

405 North State Street

I like the three flagpoles of this Queen Anne and the City of Belvidere flag.

Ida Public Library

The Ida Public Library is Belvidere’s town library. It was established with a $5,000 donation by General Allen Fuller in 1883, who asked the city to establish a library in his daughter Ida’s memory. Ida was a prominent citizen of Belvidere at the time, and she died very young after becoming “sick with consumption” (an old term for tuberculosis).

Portrait of Ida Fuller Hovey. (Ida Public Library website)

The library first opened on the second floor of City Hall (now the fire station), but as Belvidere grew and demand increased, a new building was necessary. A grant of $17,500 was appropriated from Andrew Carnegie, and the firm Patton & Miller was commissioned. The existing library building was completed in 1913. A complementary addition and renovation were completed in 1987.

The Ida Public Library is mostly Arts & Crafts in style with some Prairie School influences, but its original front doors are surrounded by two Doric columns and pilasters, a last holdover of Beaux-Arts design. Its wide, low-pitched tile roof overhangs the low building greatly and is supported by doubled corbels. Two sets of windows border the entrance bay, which have stained-glass transoms.

Detail of the engraved panel with the library’s name and column capitals:

The main entrance has relocated to the north side with the construction of the 1987 addition. It is similar at first glance, but it’s missing many of the details that make the original building special. I think the little post-its on the windows are meant to imitate Minecraft glass:

Calvary Baptist Church

Calvary Baptist’s original wooden church. (Calvary Baptist website)

Calvary Baptist as a congregation has quite a history, but the building it occupies today is not its original home. The church was established in 1865 from First Baptist by several Civil War veterans, their wives, and their families. It was originally known as “South Belvidere Baptist Church,” since the large families found it difficult to cross the rickety bridges over the Kishwaukee River. The church’s first services were held on October 26, 1865, in a small chapel on Logan Avenue. Its first wooden Romanesque Revival church building was completed in 1869.

The first church burned down in 1871, after a fire set by parishioners to prevent plaster repairs from freezing grew out of control. A replacement built of brick was completed in 1873, which seemed to also be Romanesque Revival in style.

Calvary Baptist’s second church, at far left. (Calvary Baptist website)

Calvary Baptist continued to grow as the decades went on, though they struggled during the Great Depression. Their second church building was damaged by a 1936 fire, and a basement was dug to add space for a Sunday school.

In 1965, the congregation’s 100th anniversary, the second church building was considered to be fully obsolete. The church moved again to an existing Gothic Revival building on 7th Avenue by 1969, an action considered for years but never acted upon until that time. Calvary Baptist also changed its name to how it is known today.

Calvary Baptist’s third church building. (Calvary Baptist website)

By the early 2000s, Calvary Baptist began to struggle. With declining attendance and a rift in the congregation that caused many to leave in 2009, its 7th Avenue building was too large for the remaining parishioners. The church has since moved to its current location on North State Street, ironically across the river that spurred its creation.

The previous church buildings have since been demolished. All I know is that the building that Calvary Baptist occupies now was built as the First Church of Christ, Scientist, but I couldn’t find anything beyond that. It doesn’t appear on the 1922 Sanborn map, the latest one, so it seems to have been built after that but sometime that decade.

I like the buff brick and pedimented roof of this Beaux-Arts design. The entrance is supported by two Roman Ionic columns, and the doors have a wood awning above. The windows are smaller rectangular stained-glass designs, and the largest window is on the crossing of the church. If you look closely, the roof appears to have a skylight.

222-224 North State Street

This c. 1895 Commercial style design is very intact across the board. It retains its original storefronts with cast-iron columns and applied ornamentation, as well as the metal cornice crowning the building. The second floor features two large vaulted windows with a thinner central double-hung window. Note how the doors on the first floor are off-center.

Floyd Hopkins Block

The NRHP listing states that this heavily altered building consists of two c. 1880 frame buildings that received a brick veneer in 1893. The storefronts are both modern replacements. The brick vaulting and hood molds are original, as well as the corbelled parapet above. The Floyd Hopkins Block has been painted gray since 2007 at the latest, but the white coat on the arch and hood molds dates to between 2018 and 2020. Before, the building was a uniform gray color.

The north facade has a mural and historic marker dedicated to the American House, an early hotel in Belvidere:

First National Bank

Historic photo of the building. (Belvidere Historic Resources Survey)

An early Italianate building dating to c. 1850, it was originally built as two, one being the First National Bank and the other Brown & Co. Hardware. The southern storefront has brick pilasters and a porticoed entry, possibly an early 20th century alteration, while the northern one has more period-correct thin iron columns and a detailed arch over the door. The masonry and hood molds of the second and third floor are intact, but the windows have been replaced with vinyl double-hung ones. The original cornice has been lost and a corrugated metal strip crowns the building.

The simpler south facade:

Longcor Block

Another heavily altered Italianate 2-in-1 special here. The original Longcor Block is the southern portion of the building, though both date to c. 1880 and appear on the 1885 Sanborn map. The building seems to have been highly modified in the 1980s with a stone veneer on the base, awnings, and more modern iron doors.

The original cornice and hood molds are intact on both sections, though the window openings have shrunk and been partially obscured by the awnings. The brick has been painted an unappealing shade of brown.

Unity Block

The 1895 Commercial style Unity Block is also altered, but it has certain features intact. However, it’s in pretty shoddy shape. The original recessed storefronts and their decoration are present, though they have been painted. Above, it seems a cornice and some decorative pier capitals have been removed at some point, and the windows are older replacements.

Ransom Building

Though the base is unrecognizable, the Ransom Building is almost completely unaltered from the second floor upward. Its architect is known, Lewis H. Sturges, and it was built circa 1895 like its neighbors. The base has contemporary vinyl siding and an asphalt shingle awning. The second floor seems to have the original buff brick, though it’s odd that there are no hood molds, unless they were removed at some point. The elaborate cornice with the building’s name emblazoned is intact.

Brittan Building

A view of the Clark Cab Company’s vehicles. Buildings in photo from left to right: 118 N State (not featured in this article), Brittan Building, Ransom Building, Unity Block, 130 N State, 132 N State (both not featured either), and Longcor Block. (NRHP listing)

A later Commercial style design dating to 1901, this building is distinguished by its central, oversized oriel window. Its cornice is mostly brick with stone coping, and the only other stone detail is the building’s datestone. The first floor has been altered with modern siding and wood shake shingles.

Apollo Theatre

Early photo of the Apollo Theatre, showing its context after construction. (Belvidere Historic Resources Survey)

The Apollo Theatre is an uncommon example of a Commercial style theater, mostly undecorated beyond its brickwork and parapet, which have a Renaissance Revival influence. It opened in January 1922 on the site of a former opera house that burned in 1917. The theater was built with 950 seats and intended for plays, movies, and vaudeville. It was renovated extensively beginning in 1931, when air conditioning was added.

Another historic photo of the theater. (WREX)

The Apollo Theatre began to decline in the 1950s, and as was common for many historic movie theaters, it resorted to showing adult films by 1971. However, this stage only lasted three years, and in 1974 the building reopened as the “Dollarodeon,” showing movies for a dollar a ticket. The theater caught fire in 1975 due to arson, going through phases of reopening and closing. It became a banquet hall in 2000, and by 2002 the original furnishings and marquee had been lost.

The theater in 2023 after its roof collapse. (National Weather Service Chicago)

In 2022, the Apollo Theatre reopened as the Apollo Theatre Activity Center, a live music venue. A year later, a tornado during a metal concert caused the roof to collapse, killing one person and injuring another 48 people. It was repaired and the building reopened in September 2023.

The theater’s principal facade is still pretty intact today, minus the missing marquee:

Note the simple brick piers and panels across the facade. Beyond that, the only decoration is the parapet. Part of the parapet’s brickwork is a replacement darker red brick from the repairs after the tornado.

Detail of the circular windows and small double-hung ones above:

This little structure with vaulted windows was built as part of the theater, possibly as the ticket office or a separate storefront:

Leland Hotel/G. J. Schlenk’s Brewery

Historic view of the Leland Hotel and its surroundings. (Belvidere Historic Resources Survey)

Brewing on this site goes back to at least 1885, as the Sanborn map shows a different brewery building. It was demolished around 1895 for the construction of this Commercial style building, which has a touch of Queen Anne design with the corner turret. It seemed to have been built as a brewery by G. J. Schlenk, and it was known as the Schlenk Block as well.

In 1912, brothers James and M. W. Collins opened the Leland Hotel inside this building, though they sold it soon after in 1915. The mural is a recreation of the one that originally graced the building in 1912. The hotel was open through at least 1960, but it has since closed.

The principal facade:

Note the opening at left, which seems to be for cars to drive through and is ostensibly an alteration to the original storefront given the intact iron framing surrounding. However, that is the only trace of the 1895 base, as the remainder has been obscured by wood paneling and a shake awning. The second floor’s masonry and hood molds are intact, though the vestiges of a bracketed cornice on the turret indicate one used to continue across the parapet.

Lots of funky shades on this aging brick:

Another mural inside the car vestibule, restored by Belvidere artists:

107 North State Street

An atypically ornate Commercial style design for the area, 107 N State is also rather intact compared to its neighbors. Its iron storefront framing is intact, though the windows and entrances were being updated when I visited. The second floor has a high quality of brickwork as seen in the various recessed panels and designs such as diamonds and plus-signs. The hood molds are in very good condition. The metal cornice above is intact, but rusty.

It’s great that Belvidere is honoring its minority and female citizens too. I’m surprised that a town in rural Illinois has these murals.

Lady Diamond Mural

I didn’t capture these heavily altered buildings, but this mural commemorates the Lady Diamond bicycle, which was manufactured by Belvidere-based National Sewing Machine Company: