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Statement of Significance

Raynor’s Addition Local Historic District is being nominated for its architecture because of the following factors:

• The district is illustrative of the variety of architectural styles available in residential housing in the early twentieth century;

• and because of the degree to which the structures are intact with a minimum of alterations. Eighty-one percent of all structures in the district are contributing (17 of 21).

 The development of Raynor’s Addition Local Historic District, which for the most part took place between 1899 and 1910, mirrors the difficult times as well as the times of progress within the city, the state, and the nation. The neighborhood was a distinctively upper middle class subdivision where members of the community built their family houses. A cross-section of owners of houses in Raynor’s Addition Local Historic District reveal the following occupations:

• Proprietor of meat market

• Superintendent of Joliet High Schools and Junior College

• Physician Proprietor of farm machinery dealership

The oldest surviving structure in the district is the Dinet House, circa 1899, at 816 Western Avenue. The Robesson House, built circa 1902, is located at 804 Western Avenue. A house immediately east of the current 811 Western was built circa 1894, and one was built just east of that in circa 1903, but both were demolished (809 in about 1969 and 807 in about 1959). The house at 811 was built circa 1903; 813 was built circa 1904; and several more appear a year later.