Armour's Warehouse, also known as the Seneca Grain Elevator or the Hogan's North Elevator, is a historic grain elevator located in the village of

Seneca, Illinois Seneca is a village in LaSalle and Grundy counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The population was 2,353 at the 2020 census, down from 2,371 at the 2010 census. The LaSalle County portion of Seneca is part of the Ottawa, IL Micropolitan St ...

, United States. The elevator and two surrounding outbuildings were listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

History

The

grain elevator A grain elevator or grain terminal is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lowe ...

, known as Armour's Warehouse, was constructed in 1861–62 on the north bank of the

Illinois-Michigan Canal The Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. In Illinois, it ran from the Chicago River in Bridgeport, Chicago to the Illinois River at LaSalle, Illinois, LaSalle-Peru, Illinois, Peru ...

in Seneca, Illinois. It was built by John Armour and remained in the Armour family for a short time before passing through different owners. Though not the first grain elevator in Seneca, it is the only historic grain elevator still standing in the village.Henning, Barbara J.
Armour's Warehouse
, (

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

), National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, September 15, 1997, ''

Illinois Historic Preservation Agency The Illinois Historic Preservation Division, formerly Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of Illinois, and is a division of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. It is tasked with the duty of ...

'', accessed May 12, 2008.

Design

The Seneca Grain Elevator consists of a grain elevator or "elevating warehouse" which rises four stories above its basement. The by structure dominates the site and overlooks downtown Seneca. Between 1924–39

corrugated metal Corrugated galvanised iron (CGI) or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America), zinc (in Cyprus and Nigeria) or ...

siding was added to the building as a

fire prevention Fire prevention is a function of many fire departments. The goal of fire prevention is to educate the public on the precautions that should be taken to prevent potentially harmful fires from occurring. It is a proactive method of preventing fir ...

measure.

Outbuildings

In total there are five separate buildings, including the grain elevator, on the site of Armour's Warehouse. An 1883

spur A spur is a metal tool designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots for the purpose of directing a horse or other animal to move forward or laterally while riding. It is usually used to refine the riding aids (commands) and to ba ...

of railroad track remains on the north side of the elevator; the tracks lead to a dump shed connected to a c. 1940

corn crib A corn crib or corncrib is a type of granary used to dry and store corn. It may also be known as a cornhouse or corn house. Overview After the harvest and while still on the cob, corn is placed in the crib either with or without the husk. The ...

. Also on the property are an office with an attached scale house dating from 1892, and two seed warehouses. One seed warehouse dates from after 1947 while the other dates from the earlier 1940s.

Historic significance

The Seneca Grain Elevator is the oldest remaining grain elevator along the banks of the Illinois-Michigan Canal, a U.S.

National Historic Landmark District A National Historic Landmark District (NHLD) is a geographical area that has received recognition from the United States Government that the buildings, landscapes, cultural features and archaeological resources within it are of the highest signific ...

. It is historically significant in a local context commercially and in attracting the

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

to Seneca. On a broader level, it illustrates the economic importance of the Illinois-Michigan Canal for transporting grain products. Armour's Warehouse was added to the U.S.

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on November 7, 1997. Included in the listing as

contributing properties 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 distr ...

were the 1892 office building and attached scale house, and the older of the two seed warehouses.

References

External links

Armour's Warehouse
Property Information Report,

* {{National Register of Historic Places Agricultural buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Buildings and structures in LaSalle County, Illinois Historic American Engineering Record in Illinois National Register of Historic Places in LaSalle County, Illinois Grain elevators in the United States Commercial buildings completed in 1862 Agricultural buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places 1862 establishments in Illinois Agricultural buildings and structures in Illinois