River Forest Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

From the record

“The River Forest Historic District is a national historic district encompassing much of the village of River Forest, Illinois. The district includes 830 buildings, most of which are houses as the village is almost entirely residential.”
Wikipedia article River Forest Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 621 National Register listings published here for Cook County · listed in 1977 · category: Building.

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

The listing

Address. Between Harlem Ave. and Des Plaines River with 2 extensions N of Chicago Ave. and 2 extensions S of Lake St., River Forest, 60305
When was it listed? August 1977
Category. building
Township. River Forest township
National Register reference number. 77000483 - 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.

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 River Forest Historic District: 6 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.

Site	Commodity	Status
A C O'Laughlin Stone Co Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Bellwood Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Melrose Park City Eng. - Own Crews	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Northlake City Eng. - Own Crews	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
River Forest City Eng - Own Crews	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
West Chester City Eng. - Own Crews	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Cook County

Storms near this property

13 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names River Forest, the town this property stands in, in 13 storm reports between 2003 and 2023: 6 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 1 flood, 1 flash flood. 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
June 2006	Hail	River Forest	$15,000	Quarter size hail was reported in River Forest and lasted 10 minutes. The hail caused damage to cars and windows.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	River Forest	$10,000	Trees and large tree limbs were blown down along Wenonah Avenue. Trees and tree limbs were blown down across other parts of Oak Park. A large tree was uprooted along Clinton Avenue and fell onto a house causing damage to the roof and gutters.
April 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	River Forest	-	A photo showed a large tree limb snapped, blocking Thatcher Avenue south of North Avenue.
June 2021	Flash Flood	River Forest	-	Street flooding was reported in Forest Park. The inbound Eisenhower Expressway (Interstate 290) was closed between Des Plaines Avenue and Harlem Avenue due to standing water.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	River Forest	-	A very large tree limb was blown down in a backyard.
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	River Forest	-	A tree was blown down across a road.
June 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	River Forest	-	Several 4 to 6 inch diameter limbs were blown down.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	River Forest	-	A one-foot diameter branch was blown down with numerous smaller branches on Harvard Street between Clarence Avenue and East Avenue.
June 2009	Flood	River Forest	-	Standing water was reported on right the side of Interstate 290 at Austin Blvd.
June 2019	Hail	River Forest	-	no account filed
August 2014	Hail	River Forest	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	River Forest	-	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	River Forest	-	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.

Property	Distance	Listed
William H. Hatch House	0.4 miles	2007
William E. Drummond House	0.4 miles	1970
William H. Winslow House And Stable	0.5 miles	1970
Richard Cluever House	0.7 miles	1977
Marshall Field and Company Store	0.8 miles	1988
William and Caroline Gibbs House	0.9 miles	1992

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 77000483 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Cook County	All 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.