Articles about Architecture and Historic Preservation

For 36 years, from 1876 to 1912, the tallest structure in the Twin Cities wasn’t a downtown Bloomington office building. No, towering a...

The post-World War II era marked a dramatic evolution—if not revolution—in the design of school buildings. In Bloomington...

Although it hasn’t served as a Bloomington Fire Department station for well over seven decades, old Engine House No. 4 on South Main St...

Though it may seem hard to believe, horses remained an integral part of Corn Belt farms well into the 1930s. And although the tractor b...

The holiday season of 1900 brought more changes than usual for area shoppers flocking to downtown Bloomington. A little m...

For many years, a dilapidated wood frame residence on the east edge of downtown Bloomington offered a visible reminder of the city’s ea...

Although it may be hard to believe, the current Bloomington High School is nearly six decades old. The school opened back in the fall o...

For a few years after the end of the Civil War, the Academy of Music was Bloomington’s most elegant concert and theater hall. And thoug...

Along Illinois Route 165 between the rural communities of Cooksville and Colfax in eastern McLean County is a long-abandoned, impeccabl...

American residential architecture has long favored dominant English-inspired styles. When most folks conjure up their ideal of an attra...

“How pleasant it is, immediately after the noontide hour of a hot summer’s day,” mused The Pantagraph in 1857, “to stroll away from the...