Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
From the record
“The Karcher Hotel is a historic hotel building at 405 Washington Street in Waukegan, Illinois. Opened in 1928, the hotel was built during an economic boom in Waukegan; its location near Waukegan's train station and downtown businesses was chosen to attract traveling businesspeople.”
Wikipedia article Karcher Hotel, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 98 National Register listings published here for Lake County · listed in 2002 · category: Building.
National Register reference number.02000845- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
About the year 1838, Burleigh Hunt, formerly of Canada, came and built a house on the south side of the river, near where is now the residence of Judge Blodgett, at the southwest corner of State and Liberty streets, in Tiffany's Addition to Waukegan.
About the same time, Dr. David Cory came and made a claim of Govern¬ ment land on the northeast quarter of Section 21, and built a house of hewn logs near the present residence of I. R. Lyon, on State street, just north of Clayton street. He was the first physician who settled in this township. It is proper to remark, in this connection, that Mrs. Cory, widow of Dr. David Cory, who still lives in Waukegan, is now the oldest resident in the city, in point of time of residence.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Karcher Hotel
between 2003 and 2015, burning about 1,203 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
4
Arson/incendiarism
1
Misuse of fire by a minor
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
4 workings within 5 miles of Karcher Hotel: 2 past producers, 1 producer, 1 plant.
2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Tantalum, Niobium (Columbium), Tungsten, Iodine. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Waukegan, the town this property stands in, in 20 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 9 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 1 heavy rain, 1 lightning.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
A large tree was blown down at the corner of Harding Street and Alexander Court. The tree was partially uprooted, lifting a sidewalk. The tree also fell onto power lines.
A microburst caused extensive tree damage between May Street to the north and 8th Street to the south and Jackson Street to the west and McAlister Street to the east. Trees fell on homes and cars causing damage and several roadways were blocked.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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