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Photograph of Robert Allerton Park
Photograph by D. Finnigan, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Robert Allerton Estate

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

From the record

“The Robert Allerton Park is a 1,517-acre (614 ha) park, nature center, and conference center located in the rural Piatt County township of Willow Branch, near Monticello, Illinois, on the upper Sangamon River. The park and manor house, The Farms, are attributed to owner Robert Allerton, industrialist heir, artist, art collector and garden designer.”

Wikipedia article Robert Allerton Park, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 6 National Register listings published here for Piatt County · listed in 2007 · category: District.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • Listed as. Allerton, Robert, Estate - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
  • Address. 515 Old Timber Rd., Monticello, 61856
  • When was it listed? July 2007
  • Category. district
  • Township. Willow Branch township
  • National Register reference number. 07000701 - 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.

The ground it stands on

1,309 words

The chapter on Willow Branch Township in Past and Present of Piatt County, Illinois : Together with Biographical Sketches of Many Prominent and Influential Citizens, published 1903 names Monticello. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

E. F. Dallas was the first grain merchant in the town. Dr. Caldwell now of Monticello. practiced medicine here for several years. Washington Xebaker kept the first dry goods store: Walker and Carter, the first hardware store. James Click was the first blacksmith and J. B. Hamilton was the first druggist. The village of Cisco was platted April 24, 1874, by Hiram Dodge, Erastus

Passage source: Past and Present of Piatt County, Illinois : Together with Biographical Sketches of Many Prominent and Influential Citizens, published 1903.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Willow Branch Township - 1,309 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Robert Allerton Estate: 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Monticello City PitStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Piatt County Highway DepartmentStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Piatt County

Storms near this property

46 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Monticello, the town this property stands in, in 46 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 21 thunderstorm wind, 17 hail, 6 tornado, 1 flash flood. The reports record 1 injury. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 1996Tornado (F1)Monticello1 hurt, $1,000,000no account filed
October 2001Tornado (F2)Monticello$2,200,000An eyewitness reported that the tornado touched down on the southwest side of Monticello and traveled to the north northeast across town. It blew down numerous trees near the golf course then destroyed a storage building. In this area the tornado intensified to F2 Intensity (wind speeds of 120 to 130 mph) taking the roof of a church completely off and blew it into the roof of a nearby 2 story apartment building. The apartment building suffered severe damage and has been deemed uninhabitable. A farm implement building/business, which was close to 200 feet in length, had roughly three quarters of the building destroyed. Damage for this building was estimated at nearly $2 million, as several combines inside were severely damaged or destroyed. Debris from the building was thrown into a nearby power substation, causing a complete power outage to the town of 5,000 residents as well as neighboring communities. The tornado appeared to have lifted off the ground and stayed at tree top level for the remainder of its life through the town producing F0 damage. Numerous trees had the tops broken off and several large trees were uprooted. Once outside of town it did touch down briefly once more, damaging the roof of one home and destroying several outbuildings and a garage of another homestead about a mile north northeast of town. In this location, several 2 inch by 6 inch pieces of lumber from one of the machine sheds had shot through patio doors into the home. No injuries were reported due to the tornado. Damage is estimated around $2.2 million.
May 2009HailMonticello$255,000Large hail damaged siding, gutters, roofs, and windows to numerous homes in the Long Grove subdivision west of Monticello. Hail up to 2.75 inches in diameter was also reported on the east side of Monticello, where several cars were damaged.
May 2009LightningMonticello$60,000Lightning struck a power pole on the east side of Monticello. The lightning strike caused damage to electrical systems and appliances in several homes. There were no injuries.
May 2009Thunderstorm WindMonticello$35,000Several large trees were blown down and roof damage occurred to 3 homes in Monticello.
August 2009Thunderstorm WindMonticello$25,000A large tree was blown onto a home on the east side of Monticello. A nearby barn had its doors ripped off and part of its roof damaged.
June 2014Thunderstorm WindMonticello$20,000Several trees were blown down.
May 2018Thunderstorm WindMonticello$10,000A cinder block pool house was destroyed.
August 2009Thunderstorm WindMonticello$10,000Numerous 3-inch diameter tree limbs were blown down in Monticello.
May 2018Thunderstorm WindMonticello$5,000A machine shed door was blown off, knocking down some small trees nearby.
August 2000Thunderstorm WindMonticello$5,000Numerous trees were blown down, as well as, large areas of corn and soybean crops extending from Monticello south to the county line along US 36. In Bement, a large tree limb fell onto a house breaking a window and tearing down some guttering. Also, some homes suffered siding damage.
May 2007Thunderstorm WindMonticello$3,000Numerous large tree limbs were blown down. One limb tore a porch roof off a house.|
May 2013Thunderstorm WindMonticello$2,000A large tree was blown down in Monticello.
May 2013Thunderstorm WindMonticello$1,500A cable line was blown down in Monticello.
August 2025Thunderstorm WindMonticello-Two trees were blown down.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindMonticello-Numerous large tree branches were blown down.
October 2021Thunderstorm WindMonticello-A tree was blown onto a house.
April 2020Thunderstorm WindMonticello-Several trees were blown down.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindMonticello-A large tree branch was blown down.
February 2008Flash FloodMonticello-Allerton Road was impassible near the Sangamon River.
July 2006Tornado (F0)Monticello-A tornado briefly touched down in a field and caused crop damage.
July 2005Thunderstorm WindMonticello-Several trees and large branches blown down.
May 2003Tornado (F0)Monticello-A tornado briefly touched down in a field. No damage or injuries were reported.
May 2003Thunderstorm WindMonticello-Three large trees were blown down.
June 1999Thunderstorm WindMonticello-Numerous trees, tree limbs, and power lines were blown down in Monticello and Pierson Station. Some trees fell onto US Route 36 near Pierson Station.
April 1997Tornado (F0)Monticello-A tornado briefly touched down in an open field, near the intersection of I-72 and Route 10. No damage or injuries were reported.
April 1997Thunderstorm WindMonticello-Thunderstorm winds blew off the doors of a shed and a barn 5 miles northwest of Monticello. No injuries were reported and no damage estimate was available.
June 1995Thunderstorm WindMonticello-One tree was blown down.
August 1993Tornado (F0)Monticello-A tornado briefly touched down near old Highway 47, 3 miles west of Monticello. No damage was reported.
June 2023HailMonticello-no account filed
March 2016HailMonticello-no account filed
May 2016HailMonticello-no account filed
May 2016HailMonticello-no account filed
April 2015HailMonticello-no account filed
November 2011HailMonticello-no account filed
May 2010HailMonticello-no account filed
May 2009HailMonticello-no account filed
May 2009HailMonticello-no account filed
May 2009HailMonticello-no account filed
April 2006HailMonticello-no account filed
March 2003HailMonticello-no account filed
August 2001HailMonticello-no account filed
May 2000HailMonticello-no account filed
April 1999HailMonticello-no account filed
May 1998HailMonticello-no account filed
October 1996Thunderstorm WindMonticello-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Piatt County

Map coverage status

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

4 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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
South Charter Street Historic District4.5 miles2002
Monticello Courthouse Square Historic District4.7 miles2009
North State Street Historic District4.9 miles1998
Francis E. Bryant House6.8 miles2017

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 07000701 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Piatt CountyAll 6 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • 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.
  • 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.