BlockFrom the record
One of 38 National Register listings published here for Will County · listed in 2022 · category: Building.
Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service
Joseph Ferris Perry House
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2022.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 3 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
- Listed as. Perry, Joseph Ferris, House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
- Address. 365 West Exchange St., Crete, 60417
- When was it listed? December 2022
- Category. building
- Township. Crete township
- National Register reference number. 100008486 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.
The ground it stands on
482 wordsThe chapter on Crete Township in The History of Will County, Illinois, Containing a History of the County ... a Directory of Its Real Estate Owners; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; General and Local Statistics ... History of Illinois ... History of the Northwest .., published 1878 names Crete. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
The village of Crete was laid out in 1849, by Willard Wood, who lived here, occupying the site since 1837. Mr. Wood built at the place now occupied by the Hewes House, at the last-named date, and kept the house as a hotel. As mentioned in the history of Washington Township, places for the accommodation of the traveling public sprang up all along this great highway, and among the number was the Wood Tavern. Of course it was not the commodious hotel that now occupies the corner, but a small log structure ; though the use of that corner, with numerous changes and additions, has always been devoted to that purpose. Until about the time of the laying-out of the town, the same log cabin was the hotel ; but, at the date named, it gave place to a more pretentious afiair. Wood then erected a building 26x36 feet, which he occupied until 1865. In 1873, the Hewes brothers, Daniel and B. F., came into possession, and built the main part of the house, and have occupied it ever since.
Passage source: The History of Will County, Illinois, Containing a History of the County ... a Directory of Its Real Estate Owners; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; General and Local Statistics ... History of Illinois ... History of the Northwest .., published 1878.
The post office was established at the Corners in 1836, and was named Crete; and from this the village, in 1849, and the township, in 1850, have derived their names. Crete is one of the most enterprising towns on the line of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad. It is composed of men of ability and thrift, as indicated by buildings, both public and private, which are of a superior charac-
Passage source: The History of Will County, Illinois, Containing a History of the County ... a Directory of Its Real Estate Owners; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; General and Local Statistics ... History of Illinois ... History of the Northwest .., published 1878.
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 Crete Township - 482 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Mines and quarries near this property
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Joseph Ferris Perry House: 1 past producer. 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago Hghts City Eng | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this property
39 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Crete, the town this property stands in, in 39 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 18 thunderstorm wind, 15 hail, 2 flood, 2 heavy rain. 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | $2,000 | Trees and power lines were blown down. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | - | Roof damage was reported to the Balmoral Elementary School. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | - | Tree limbs and power lines were damaged. |
| March 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | - | Tree damage was reported along Kings Rd north of Norfolk Rd. |
| August 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | - | A large tree and power lines were blown down and blocking the road near Exchange St and Perry St in Crete. Additional tree and power line damage was reported near Selleck and Cass Streets. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | - | A personal weather station measured a wind gust to 72 mph. |
| June 2021 | Tornado (EF0) | Crete | - | A tornado with peak winds of 70 mph touched down near Old Monee Road, west of South Sangamon Street. The tornado produced mainly sporadic tree damage along its path including through the southeast side of Crete. A rotted tree was uprooted along Merioneth Drive, which partially fell onto a house. The tornado continued northeast through the east side of Steger. A house on St. Andrews Drive suffered gutter damage due to falling tree limbs. The tornado lifted near Ronald Road, just west of Route 394. |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | - | Trees and power lines were blown down. |
| June 2019 | Heavy Rain | Crete | - | Storm total rainfall of 4.78 inches was measured. |
| June 2019 | Heavy Rain | Crete | - | Storm total rainfall of 3.61 inches was measured. |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | - | A wind gust to 67 mph was measured. |
| June 2015 | Flood | Crete | - | About two feet of standing water was reported on Highway 1 in Crete. |
| August 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | - | Numerous trees and power lines were blown down in Crete. |
| June 2013 | Hail | Crete | - | Golfball size hail was reported near Wayne Drive and Naoma Drive. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | - | A tree was blown down near Main Street and Exchange Street. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | - | Winds gusting to 76 mph were measured by a handheld anemometer on top of a two story building. A two foot diameter tree snapped off about 15 feet from the base of the tree. A large tree fell onto a powerline on the 1400 block of Douglas Lane. The tree caught on fire. |
| July 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | - | Wind gusts were estimated to 60 mph with 4 to 5 inch diameter tree limbs blown down. |
| January 2008 | Flash Flood | Crete | - | Local creeks overflowed onto roadways. |
| August 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | - | A wind gust was measured to 65 mph. |
| March 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | - | Tree limbs blown down. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | - | A six inch diameter tree was blown down. |
| August 2007 | Flood | Crete | - | Four to six inches of water on Crete Monee Road near Route 1. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | - | Estimated wind gust to 65 mph. |
| May 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | - | Trees were blown down with an estimated wind gust to 75 mph. |
| June 2005 | Hail | Crete | - | Penny size hail was reported near Monee and Western Roads. |
| May 2019 | Hail | Crete | - | no account filed |
| March 2017 | Hail | Crete | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Crete | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Crete | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Crete | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Crete | - | no account filed |
| July 2009 | Hail | Crete | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Crete | - | no account filed |
| October 2006 | Hail | Crete | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Crete | - | no account filed |
| April 2003 | Hail | Crete | - | no account filed |
| October 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Crete | - | no account filed |
| April 1996 | Hail | Crete | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Hail | Crete | - | no account filed |
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
1 within 8 milesOther 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 | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Beecher Mausoleum | 7.4 miles | 2013 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 100008486 in Record Group 79. |
| Will County | All 38 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.