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Photograph of Sycamore Historic District
Photograph by A McMurray, CC BY 2.5. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Sycamore Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

From the record

“The Sycamore Historic District is a meandering area encompassing 99 acres (400,000 m2) of the land in and around the downtown of the DeKalb County, Illinois county seat, Sycamore. The area includes historic buildings and a number of historical and Victorian homes.”

Wikipedia article Sycamore Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 19 National Register listings published here for DeKalb County · listed in 1978 · category: District.

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

The listing

  • Address. Irregular pattern along Main and Somonauk Sts., Sycamore, 60178
  • When was it listed? May 1978
  • Category. district
  • Township. Sycamore township
  • National Register reference number. 78003104 - 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.

The ground it stands on

35,267 words

The chapter on Sycamore Township in Portrait and Biographical Album of DeKalb County, Illinois : Containing Full-page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County : Together with Portraits and Biographies of All the Governors of Illinois, and of the Presidents of the United States : Also Containing a History of the County, from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, published 1885 names Sycamore. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

HIS is an excellent township, being well supplied with timber 'and prairie, and watered by the Kishwaukee River. The Sycamore Branch of the Chicago & Northwestern is the only railroad within its borders. The country is quite flat - even along the river banks there are no steep bluffs. The soil is a rich black loam, and highly productive. Lands here are valued from $50 to $75 per acre, according to improvement.

Passage source: Portrait and Biographical Album of DeKalb County, Illinois : Containing Full-page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County : Together with Portraits and Biographies of All the Governors of Illinois, and of the Presidents of the United States : Also Containing a History of the County, from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, published 1885.

The first settlers of the township were from the East, mostly from the Green Mountain State, and; like all New Englanders, the first thing to bethought of, after becoming settled, was to look after the educational interests of the coming generation. Therefore, early in 1837, the few neighbors then here met .A /-> together and erected a log school-house about four miles north of the present city of Sycamore, and in the summer of that year Mary Wood taught a term of school. She was followed by J. C. Kellogg, who taught the winter term. To Miss Wood belongs the honor of being the first teacher in the township of Sycamore.

Passage source: Portrait and Biographical Album of DeKalb County, Illinois : Containing Full-page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County : Together with Portraits and Biographies of All the Governors of Illinois, and of the Presidents of the United States : Also Containing a History of the County, from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, published 1885.

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 Sycamore Township - 35,267 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Mines and quarries near this property

5 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Sycamore Historic District: 3 past producers, 1 plant, 1 producer. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone. 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
Sears Limestone Quarry & PlantStone, Crushed/BrokenPlant
Sycamore City PitStonePast Producer
Floit Sand & Gravel Co.Sand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Tyrrell PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
West Lake PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in DeKalb County

Storms near this property

48 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sycamore, the town this property stands in, in 48 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 32 thunderstorm wind, 12 hail, 2 flash flood, 1 lightning. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 1997Thunderstorm WindSycamore1 hurtno account filed
August 2008Thunderstorm WindSycamore$10,000Three utility poles were snapped off at their base. A large steel flagpole was bent over. Multiple trees and power lines were blown down.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindSycamore-A tree branch was downed onto a power line near a grocery store in Sycamore.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindSycamore-A large tree fell onto a building causing the roof to collapse.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindSycamore-An evergreen tree was snapped at the trunk.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindSycamore-A rotted pine tree was snapped 15 feet up.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindSycamore-One tree was snapped and another uprooted northeast of Sycamore.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindSycamore-Several live pine trees were snapped a few feet off the ground and facing northeast.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindSycamore-Wind got underneath the garage doors of a farm outbuilding and blew the roof off. Debris was scattered several hundred yards toward the northeast.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindSycamore-The top of a grain silo was blown off and carried to the northeast.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindSycamore-Rotted tree trunks were snapped facing north to north-northeast.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindSycamore-A structure at a ballfield in Sycamore was shifted slightly to the north. Bleachers were also tipped over and light towers were snapped.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindSycamore-Tree damage was reported northeast of Sycamore.
July 2023HailSycamore-A report of one inch hail was received via Spotter Network from south of Sycamore. Time was estimated using radar.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindSycamore-Medium sized tree limbs were blown down.
August 2021Tornado (EF1)Sycamore-A tornado with peak winds of 105 mph touched down west of Fenstermaker Road and south of Bethany Road. Shortly after touching down, just east of Fenstermaker Road, the tornado produced a concentrated corridor of damage where two farm buildings were nearly completely destroyed. Several trees in the area had trunks snapped near their bases. A single family home suffered some shingle loss along with two broken windows. Drone footage showed the tornado quickly widened to 150 yards as it moved east towards Airport Road, producing tree and crop damage. Farm outbuildings were damaged near Airport Road. Drone footage suggest the tornado lifted near the South Branch of the Kishwaukee River, north of Barber Green Road.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindSycamore-Tree limbs 2 to 3 inches in diameter were blown down.
June 2020Thunderstorm WindSycamore-Numerous large tree limbs were blown down near Freed and Peace Roads.
June 2020Thunderstorm WindSycamore-Numerous trees were blown down between Genoa and Sycamore and a utility pole was on fire.
April 2020HailSycamore-Golf ball size hail was reported at Peace Road and Route 23.
September 2018Thunderstorm WindSycamore-Wind gusts were estimated to 60 mph with isolated tree damage.
September 2018Thunderstorm WindSycamore-A large tree was blown down blocking County Line Road near Barber Greene Road.
March 2017Thunderstorm WindSycamore-Three to four inch diameter tree limbs were blown down near Route 23 and Route 64.
June 2014Thunderstorm WindSycamore-Power lines were blown down near Route 23 and Bethany Road.
May 2011Thunderstorm WindSycamore-Half of a tree was blown down on North Fair Street.
April 2011HailSycamore-Hail to the size of pennies was reported in Sycamore.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindSycamore-Winds were estimated to 60 mph.
April 2010Thunderstorm WindSycamore-Trees were blown down on Barber Greene Road east of Airport Road.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindSycamore-Several eight inch diameter tree limbs were blown down.
April 2009HailSycamore-Marble to penny size hail was reported near Route 23 and Bethany Road.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindSycamore-Tree limbs five inches in diameter were blown down.
August 2008Thunderstorm WindSycamore-A one foot diameter tree was blown down into a house. Multiple six to eight inch diameter tree limbs were blown down across Sycamore.
July 2007Flash FloodSycamore-Six inches of water reported on some roads, 1.99 inches of rain measured in 30 minutes south of Kishwaukee Hospital.
August 2007Flash FloodSycamore-Many streets closed due to flooding in Mayfield, South Grove, Sycamore.
March 2005HailSycamore-Penny sized hail fell for about 90 seconds on Illinois Rt. 23.
July 2005Thunderstorm WindSycamore-A gust to 70 mph was reported in Sycamore.
July 2005LightningSycamore-A tree was destroyed by a bolt of lightning.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindSycamore-no account filed
July 2024Thunderstorm WindSycamore-no account filed
April 2023Thunderstorm WindSycamore-no account filed
April 2020HailSycamore-no account filed
March 2017HailSycamore-no account filed
February 2017HailSycamore-no account filed
March 2012HailSycamore-no account filed
March 2007HailSycamore-no account filed
May 2004HailSycamore-no account filed
August 2001Thunderstorm WindSycamore-no account filed
May 2000HailSycamore-no account filed

Every storm recorded in DeKalb 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
Chicago and Northwestern Depot0.3 miles1978
Adolphus W. Brower House0.4 miles1979
Elmwood Cemetery Gates0.5 miles1978
Elmwood Cemetery Gates0.6 miles1978
William W. Marsh House0.6 miles1978
North Grove School2.7 miles2012

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 78003104 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
DeKalb CountyAll 19 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.