Henson House

Built in 1871 (Italianate architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.

From the record

One of 3 National Register listings published here for Douglas County · listed in 2020 · category: Building · built in 1871, Italianate architecture.

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

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 4 objectss, 2 structuress, 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 103 North Henson Rd., Villa Grove, 61956
When was it listed? December 2020
Category. building
Township. Camargo township
When was it built? 1871
Architectural style. Italianate architecture, Arts and Crafts movement, Neoclassical architecture
National Register reference number. 100005967 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

The ground it stands on

1,502 words

This property stands in Camargo Township. History of Douglas County, Illinois, published 1876 gives that township a chapter of its own.

The chapter covers the township.

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 Camargo Township - 1,502 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Storms near this property

14 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Villa Grove, the town this property stands in, in 14 storm reports between 1996 and 2020: 7 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 3 flash flood, 1 tornado. 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
April 2002	Flash Flood	Villa Grove	1 hurt	Over 6 inches of rain fell over northern portions of Douglas County in the Villa Grove area. This caused considerable flooding. One and a half to two feet of water flowed over roads in town, while roads on the west side of town were covered with 3 to 4 feet of water. Numerous garages and basements were flooded, with one business sustaining flood damage. Numerous people had to be rescued from their vehicles after driving around the baricades blocking flooded roads in town. Around 10 pm, a car was reported washed off the road near the intersection of county road 1350E and 1500N, a few miles west of Villa Grove. Two people were rescued from the car with one occupant sustaining a broken arm. No other injuries were reported.
June 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Villa Grove	$35,000	Several trees and power lines were blown down in Villa Grove.
September 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Villa Grove	$15,000	Several trees were blown down in Villa Grove.
April 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Villa Grove	$10,000	A tree was blown onto a garage in Villa Grove.
May 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Villa Grove	$2,000	A power line was blown down.
June 2020	Flash Flood	Villa Grove	-	Water was flowing across Illinois Route 130 between Camargo and Villa Grove.
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Villa Grove	-	A tree was blown down in Villa Grove.
May 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Villa Grove	-	Trees were blown onto 3 homes in Villa Grove.
May 2006	Tornado (F0)	Villa Grove	-	The tornado briefly touched down in a field. No damage or injuries were reported.
November 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Villa Grove	-	Several power lines blown down.
June 2008	Hail	Villa Grove	-	no account filed
August 2000	Hail	Villa Grove	-	no account filed
May 1996	Hail	Villa Grove	-	no account filed
May 1996	Flash Flood	Villa Grove	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Douglas 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.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 100005967 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Douglas County	All 3 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.
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.