BlockBefore
Photograph of First Congregational Church
Photograph by Jim Roberts, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

First Congregational Church, Des Plaines

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.

From the record

“First Congregational Church is a historic Congregational church at 766 Graceland Avenue in Des Plaines, Illinois. The church's congregation formed in 1869 and built its first church in the early 1870s.”

Wikipedia article First Congregational Church (Des Plaines, Illinois), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 621 National Register listings published here for Cook County · listed in 2019 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. 766 Graceland Ave., Des Plaines, 60016
  • When was it listed? August 2019
  • Category. building
  • Township. Maine township
  • National Register reference number. 100004310 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

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 First Congregational Church, Des Plaines: 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
Mount Prospect City EngStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Niles City Dept of Public WorksStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Cook County

Storms near this property

45 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Des Plaines, the town this property stands in, in 45 storm reports between 2000 and 2025: 25 thunderstorm wind, 14 hail, 6 flood. The reports record 5 injuries. 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
September 2014Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines4 hurt, $75,000A building under renovation collapsed due to severe winds resulting in minor injuries to four workers who were trapped and had to be rescued. Winds were estimated to around 65 mph by a trained spotter at Oakton Community College.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines1 hurt, $75,000Trees and limbs were blown down. A woman lost control of her car due to falling power lines and limbs and crashed into a house. Winds blew down twenty eight 80 foot tall power poles on Touhy Avenue.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines$300,000Extensive tree damage city wide. Damage to cars, roofs, and fences. Powerlines also blown down.
August 2007FloodDes Plaines$100,000Heavy rainfall over the upper part of the Des Plaines watershed in Wisconsin combined with well above normal precipitation over portions of Lake County Illinois brought the parts of Des Plaines River in flood by August 20th. The additional rains on August 23rd resulted in a crest of 8.62 feet the following evening at Des Plaines. In Des Plaines, flooding inundated the Methodist Campground. Many streets were affected by floodwaters and some homes on Big Bend Drive and Junior Terrace were surrounded by flood waters.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines$50,000Numerous trees, tree limbs, utility poles and power lines were blown down. A transformer was completely blown off a utility pole. A large tree fell onto a house on Oakwood Street but only caused damage to the gutters. Damage was also reported to netting and fencing at a golf course.
July 2012Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines$5,000Two houses in Des Plaines sustained minor damage by falling trees.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-A photo showed a one foot diameter tree uprooted near Linden Street and Prospect Avenue. A portion of sidewalk was damaged by the uprooted tree.
August 2024Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-Trees and branches were downed along Mount Prospect Road between Golf and Touhy Roads.
March 2023FloodDes Plaines-Numerous reports were received of flooded roadways in Des Plaines and Park Ridge.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-A healthy 12 inch diameter tree was snapped at its base.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-A photo shared on social media showed a small tree snapped at its base near Golf Road and Rand Road.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-Multiple trees were blown down on Trailside Lane north of Ballard Road. A power line was also blown down.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-A tree limb was blown down on a residential power line in the 1700 block of Linden Street.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-A photo was shared of a five inch diameter tree limb wedged into a car sunroof.
September 2022FloodDes Plaines-Street flooding was reported in Des Plaines.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-Numerous tree limbs were blown down on the south side of Des Plaines, particularly between Howard Avenue and Algonquin Road.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-Scattered tree limbs were blown down in Des Plaines, along with a few large trees. One tree was blown down in the 700 block of Algonquin Road and another tree was blown down in the 2500 block of Scott Street.
July 2021Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-A large tree was blown down near Oakton Street and Mannheim Road.
July 2021Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-A photo was shared on social media showing tree limbs that were blown down.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-A large tree limb was snapped. Other tree damage was reported in the vicinity.
July 2021Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-A large tree limb about 18 inches in diameter was blown down.
May 2018FloodDes Plaines-Flooding was reported on Mannheim Road south of Oakton Street.
October 2017FloodDes Plaines-Numerous streets and viaducts were flooded in the City of Chicago.
July 2015Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-A six inch diameter tree limb was blown down.
May 2012HailDes Plaines-Multiple reports of quarter size hail were received between Des Plaines and Park Ridge, including a report near the intersection of Touhy Avenue and River Road.
November 2010FloodDes Plaines-Heavy rain caused flooding across parts of Cook county and the City of Chicago. Six to seven inches of standing water was reported on north Lincoln Avenue near the intersection at Peterson. A runway at Midway Airport was closed due to standing water. Minor street flooding was reported at the intersection of Ogden Avenue and First Avenue in Brookfield. Rainfall totals included 2.02 inches in Berwyn; 1.75 inches 4 miles northeast of Brookfield; 1.53 inches at Midway Airport and 1.37 inches at Chicago O'Hare Airport.
June 2007Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-Numerous tree limbs blown down.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-Estimated gust to 60 mph.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-Trees were blown down at River and Golf Roads.
July 2005Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-Trees and tree limbs were blown down in parts of Des Plaines. Two parked cars were smashed by a tree that fell on them after it was struck by lightning.
July 2003HailDes Plaines-Hail ranged from the size of nickels to golf balls in Des Plaines.
August 2025HailDes Plaines-no account filed
August 2025HailDes Plaines-no account filed
April 2010HailDes Plaines-no account filed
June 2009HailDes Plaines-no account filed
June 2006HailDes Plaines-no account filed
May 2006HailDes Plaines-no account filed
September 2006HailDes Plaines-no account filed
May 2004HailDes Plaines-no account filed
May 2004Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-no account filed
August 2003HailDes Plaines-no account filed
August 2003Thunderstorm WindDes Plaines-no account filed
August 2003HailDes Plaines-no account filed
July 2003HailDes Plaines-no account filed
May 2000HailDes Plaines-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Cook 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

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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Des Plaines Methodist Camp Ground0.4 miles2005
Kennicott's Grove3.4 miles1973
Illinois Industrial School for Girls3.5 miles1998
Pickwick Theater Building3.8 miles1975
Wheeler-Magnus Round Barn4.5 miles1992
Edison Park4.5 miles2007

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 100004310 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Cook CountyAll 621 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.