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Hobbs Building

Buildings and structures in Aurora, IllinoisCommercial buildings completed in 1895Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in IllinoisNational Register of Historic Places in Kane County, IllinoisNorthern Illinois Registered Historic Place stubs
Romanesque Revival architecture in Illinois
Hobbs Building
Hobbs Building

The Hobbs Building is a historic commercial building at 2-4 North River Street in Aurora, Illinois. Albert Hobbs, a businessman and local civic leader, had the building constructed in 1895 for his furniture and undertaking businesses. Architect James E. Minott gave the building a Richardsonian Romanesque design which incorporated elements of the Queen Anne style. The four-story building has a five-sided turret on its front corner and several multi-story bay windows on its street-facing facades; the turret was originally topped by an onion dome. The building's design also includes arched windows with decorative brickwork, limestone windowsills and lintels, and ornamental terra cotta. Hobbs operated his furniture store in the building until his death in 1926; the building has had several owners since then, most of them other stores, but has been vacant since 1990.The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 17, 2021.

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Hobbs Building
North River Street, Aurora

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Latitude Longitude
N 41.759166666667 ° E -88.316666666667 °
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North River Street 9
60506 Aurora
Illinois, United States
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Hobbs Building
Hobbs Building
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Leland Tower
Leland Tower

Leland Tower is a twenty-two-story building on Stolp Island in Aurora, Illinois. Leland Tower was at one point the tallest building in Illinois outside of Chicago. Stolp Island is recognized as a Historical District by the National Register of Historic Places. Leland Tower was built initially as a hotel. The Leland Hotel project was conceived in 1926 and was one of the most ambitious projects in the city's history. The project was announced by an organization known as the Aurora Building Corporation through Herbert P. Heiss of the First Illinois Company. Mr. Heiss had located and purchased the site for the proposed hotel. The building contract was awarded to the H.G. Christman Company, general contractors of South Bend, Indiana and Detroit, Michigan. Anker Sveere Graven and Arthur Guy Mayger were chosen to design the hotel. The Aurora-Leland Hotel had all the modern amenities of the time, including telephones in every room. Topping this skyscraper was the Sky Club, a dinner and dancing club outfitted with elaborate decor and furnishings of the highest quality. The views from the Sky Club as well as its elegance made it a place to see and be seen by local socialites. "Swanks" from Chicago thought the Sky Club a fun place to take their dates. Philip K. Wrigley, fan dancer Sally Rand, and the singing cowboy Gene Autry are some of the famous names seen there. Recordings were made there by such famous blues musicians as John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. In the 1960s, the times and the economy caused the hotel once known as "The Aurora-Leland Hotel", the "Illinois Hotel" and the "Leland Hotel" to stop operations. The tower subsequently housed microwave transmitter link of defunct WLXT-TV Channel 60, an Aurora TV station which signed on in 1969. It was on the air afternoons, evenings and weekends. It also served as the transmitter site of 107.9 WAUR-FM. Leland Tower is also known locally for its elaborate holiday decorations, including an 8-story tall shooting star and Christmas tree on the roof.