By Ricky Rieckert
Dear readers,
This article on Aurora’s history is about the Stolp Island Historic District.
Stolp Island is in the Fox River, at a site where the River drops steeply. This drop is what gave the McCarty brothers, Joseph Stolp, and Zaphna Lake, the water power source they desired for their milling businesses.
The Fox River, although an excellent power source and motivator for industrial development, had a disruptive influence on commercial and residential development causing rivalry between the growing settlements on the east and west banks.
It was because of these rivalries that Stolp Island became the neutral territory for Aurora’s public buildings and other private organizations.
The National Register of Historic Places includes good examples of the works of nationally-known architects, and unique architectural styles.
Due to its central location in the growing community, Stolp Island became a functional transportation link as well as an emotional link between Aurora’s east and west sides.
W. Frederick Stolp purchased the Island for $12.72 in 1848.
He later deeded the island to his nephew, Joseph Stolp, who built a woolen mill.
If you think of Stolp Island as an outdoor museum of architecture, one of the finest exhibits is the terracotta.
Essentially a fired clay product, terracotta was often used with various colors and textures.
It was a versatile and inexpensive building material that was used to form elaborate details, or to simulate expensive stone, such as granite and limestone.
Buildings clad with architectural terracotta were originally called “China front” buildings.
In the United States, this building material was first used in Chicago in 1895.
The primary appeal of terracotta was its ability to adapt to the variety of elaborate revival architectural styles in vogue at the time.
The Aurora Hotel, an eight-story Hotel at 2 North Stolp Avenue (formerly Island Avenue), on the northwest corner of W. Galena Boulevard (Main Street), was the tallest building on Stolp Island, when it was constructed in 1917.
The first large hotel in the city, it represented an effort by the citizens who developed it to elevate Aurora’s position as a center of commerce.
The organization, Aurora Island Hotel Corporation, was responsible for many of the projects which made Stolp Island a commercial center.
The building was in a severely deteriorated condition, until it was saved by a grass roots effort in 1996.
The remarkably restored building is now used as apartments for senior citizens.
See you next week.