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Photograph of Creole House
Photograph by Nyttend, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Creole House

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

From the record

“The Creole House is a historic residence in the village of Prairie du Rocher, an old French settlement in present-day Randolph County, Illinois, United States. Built at the end of the eighteenth century and later expanded, the Creole House is the last survivor in Illinois of its type of vernacular architecture, and it forms an important part of the built environment of a portion of the Upper Mississippi Valley that possesses an unparalleled connection to the French settlement period.”

Wikipedia article Creole House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 12 National Register listings published here for Randolph County · listed in 1973 · category: Building.

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

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. Market St., Prairie du Rocher, 62277
  • When was it listed? April 1973
  • Category. building
  • Precinct. Prairie du Rocher precinct
  • National Register reference number. 73000717 - 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.

Fires near this property

4 since 2007

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Creole House between 2007 and 2020, burning about 13 acres in total. None started naturally. None 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/undetermined2
Debris and open burning2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
7 March 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesHOLDENEE
11 March 2007Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resourcesnot named
16 December 2020Debris and open burning10 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources111920
23 January 2013Debris and open burningunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources13-00000002

Every fire recorded in Randolph County

Mines and quarries near this property

6 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Creole House: 5 past producers, 1 producer. 1 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
Prairie Du Rocher QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Solvay MineStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Southern Missouri QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Stotz Quarry MineStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Unknown - LsStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Unnamed Limestone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Randolph County

Storms near this property

16 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Prairie du Rocher, the town this property stands in, in 16 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 8 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash flood, 1 tornado. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2025Tornado (EF1)Prairie Du Rocher$30,000A brief tornado touched down just south of Prairie du Rocher, destroying an outbuilding before heading north-northeast. From there the tornado caused tree damage and damaged another farm outbuilding before dissipating just southwest of Route 155.
July 1999Thunderstorm WindPrairie Du Rocher$15,000no account filed
June 1995Thunderstorm WindPrairie Du Rocher$4,400Large trees and power lines were knocked down. Some of the trees damaged roofs and parked cars in Pr. Du Rocher.
July 2021Flash FloodPrairie Du Rocher-Up to four inches of rain fell in a short amount of time causing flash flooding. Numerous roads were flooded including Illinois Route 150 just west of intersection with Illinois Route 4.
September 2016Thunderstorm WindPrairie Du Rocher-Thunderstorm winds blew down numerous large tree limbs around town.
August 2010Thunderstorm WindPrairie Du Rocher-Thunderstorm winds blew down several large trees, tree limbs and power lines around town. One tree fell onto an unoccupied vehicle causing major damage.
May 2005HailPrairie Du Rocher-A storm spotter reported 3/4 inch hail.
June 2018HailPrairie Du Rocher-no account filed
April 2011HailPrairie Du Rocher-no account filed
May 2010HailPrairie Du Rocher-no account filed
April 2006HailPrairie Du Rocher-no account filed
March 2005HailPrairie Du Rocher-no account filed
June 2003Thunderstorm WindPrairie Du Rocher-no account filed
April 1998HailPrairie Du Rocher-no account filed
June 1998Thunderstorm WindPrairie Du Rocher-no account filed
March 1997HailPrairie Du Rocher-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Randolph 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

2 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
Fort de Chartres3.4 miles1966
French Colonial Historic District4.1 miles1974

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 73000717 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Randolph CountyAll 12 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.
  • 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.