The Waterloo Historic District is a
historic district
A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from cer ...
composed of the majority of central
Waterloo,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...
. The district includes 271 buildings, of which 182 are
contributing building
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...
s to its historic character. The center of the district includes Waterloo's town square, the site of the
Monroe County Courthouse, as well as a two-block section of Main Street which forms the city's commercial core. The town square is surrounded by residential development on three sides, an unusual arrangement among small towns in Illinois. The predominant architectural styles in the residential parts of the district are local adaptations of the
Federal style
Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...
and a German cottage style developed by the city's German immigrants in the 19th century.
The district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 1, 1978.
References
Italianate architecture in Illinois
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois
Waterloo, Illinois
National Register of Historic Places in Monroe County, Illinois
{{MonroeCountyIL-NRHP-stub