Kane County

The Ephraim Smith House is an 1845 Greek Revival house in the village of Sugar Grove, Illinois, United States. The house was built by Ephraim Smith,... a millwright from Vermont. It is the only example of a wood framed Greek Revival rural house in Kane County that remains in its unaltered state. The house has, however, been moved from its original location. The Ephraim Smith House was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Construction on the Ephraim Smith House began sometime shortly after Ephraim Smith's 1844 arrival in Sugar Grove Township, Kane County, Illinois. Smith, a millwright by trade for over 25 years, built the home himself. Smith, from Pawlet in Rutland County, Vermont, purchased 52 acres from Lyman Isbell and promptly returned to Vermont for his family. The family occupied a small cabin while the house was being built. Smith's youngest child, Julia, was born in the cabin in 1845. The original house was composed of locally cut timber using the post and beam method of construction. The house is believed to be the last small frame, Greek Revival, rural house in Kane County that remains in a largely unaltered form.
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Algonquin Commons is an upper-tier outdoor shopping mall, or lifestyle center, located along Randall Road in Algonquin, Illinois, a northwest suburb... of Chicago. The mall is located in Kane County, Illinois, just south of the McHenry County line. Featuring over 80 retailers and restaurants and 600,000 total square feet, it is the largest lifestyle center in Illinois and among the largest in the United States. The tenants in the center are varied, from discount clothiers, to specialty gift shops, to popular national fashion chains, to local independent shops, to big-box retailers and upscale restaurants. It was built in 2004, and continues to add shops. The Algonquin Commons provides Algonquin with 1,700 jobs and over $1 million in sales tax revenue. Combined with the under-construction Algonquin Galleria located across the street, it is poised to become the second largest retail complex in the state of Illinois, ranking behind only Woodfield Mall. The Algonquin Commons was built by Jeffrey R. Anderson, the same developer who built the Geneva Commons, which is located in Geneva, Illinois. However, Algonquin Commons has since been sold to Inland Properties.
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The Elgin Mental Health Center is a mental health facility operated by the State of Illinois in Elgin, Illinois. Although during its history, its... mission has changed, at times it treated mental illness, tuberculosis, and provided federally-funded care for veterans. The hospital's site, which included a patient-staffed farm reached a maximum of 1,139 acres after World War II. Illinois' first mental hospital opened in Jacksonville, Illinois in 1851, but the need for two more hospitals serving Northern and Southern Illinois became apparent. The legislature authorized the two new hospitals on April 16, 1869, and set up a committee to select a site for the Northern Illinois hospital. To gain this important source of future employment, the City of Elgin sold more than $40,000 worth of bonds to purchase 80 acres of land south of the city limits and also promised to provide free freight to the site for building materials. After the site was selected, a Board of Trustees, primarily consisting of prominent Elgin residents, was appointed to construct and run the new hospital.
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The Algonquin Galleria Center is an outdoor shopping mall under construction at the southeast corner of Randall Road and County Line Road in... Algonquin, Illinois. Plans are for 1,000,000 sq ft of space with potentially 150 stores and restaurants set over 110 acres . Similar to the existing Algonquin Commons across the street, it will be an outdoor mall, or lifestyle center, with stores spread out in multiple buildings, allowing shoppers to drive up to their favorite store. The Galleria is intended to be an upscale mall, not a typical power center, and will feature high quality aesthetics and pedestrian-friendly features, striking architecture, one of the largest agglomerations of furniture retailers in the area, clusters of restaurants and specialty stores, and a Brunswick Zone XL bowling facility to serve as the center's entertainment complex. The center will be built in three major phases over a period of five to seven years. Phase I is under construction and largely complete, with a few outlots remaining to be developed. The project is being developed by Oak Brook-based Mid-America Development Partners, LLC.
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The Aurora Regional Fire Museum is a non-profit, tax exempt, educational institution located in Aurora, Illinois, USA. Its purpose is to preserve and... exhibit the artifacts and history of Aurora and surrounding area fire departments, as well as teach and promote fire safety and prevention.
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The Garfield Farm and Inn Museum is a Registered Historic Place in Kane County, Illinois, USA. The property is a 380-acre farmstead, centered around... an inn that served teamsters and the nearby community during the 1840s. It is currently a museum offering a variety of educational and entertainment events. The buildings that remain are three original 1840's structures, including the 1842 hay and grain barn, the 1849 horse barn, and the 1846 inn. Various other barns and outbuildings also stand, the last dated to 1906. T. P. Garfield was a surveyor that purchased a 440 acres lot west of the Fox River in 1841. He farmed corn, wheat, hay, oats, livestock, and dairy. He also operated one building as a tavern to serve guests traveling between Chicago and the Rock River Valley. A westbound stagecoach and mail coach routinely passed the tavern at 4 P.M., and the tavern provided an overnight resting spot for travelers. The Garfield family charged each traveler 37 and a half cents to stay the night, and as many as 64 guests would use the facilities at once.
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