Principia College Historic District

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

From the record

“The Principia College Historic District is a National Historic Landmark District encompassing the central portion of the campus of Principia College in Elsah, Illinois. The campus master plan, as well as eleven of its buildings, are important late designs of architect Bernard Maybeck, best known for his influential architecture in the American West.”
Wikipedia article Principia College Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 19 National Register listings published here for Jersey County · listed in 1993 · category: District · a National Historic Landmark.

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

The listing

Address. River Rd., Elsah, 62028
When was it listed? April 1993
Category. district
Township. Elsah township
National Register reference number. 93001605 - 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

2,092 words

The chapter on Elsah Township in History of Jersey County, Illinois, published 1919 names Elsah. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

Just below the present site of Elsah, James Mason, an officer in the land office at Edwardsville, in April, 1828, entered thirty-five acres in section 20, township 6, range 11, and also land in section 21. The same month, Joseph Klunk entered the northeast fraction of section 25, border¬ ing on the Piasa Creek, where it enters into the Mississippi, east of where the town of Randolph was afterwards projected. Mr. Mason entered additional land in this part of the country the succeeding year, and also made purchases from others who had made entries.

Passage source: History of Jersey County, Illinois, published 1919.

Another forsaken and vanished town of Jersey County was Randolph, which was on the Mississippi River, half a mile above the mouth of Piasa Creek, and was laid out by a man named Bostwick about the same time as Eminence, in either 1836 or 1837. This was the site of the location of one of the earliest settlers of Elsah Township, William Bates. A sawTmill had been established there, and also a store, while there were about a half a dozen dwellings. The prosperity of Randolph declined, and two houses now occupy the site of the former town, the remaining lots having been converted into a farm.

Passage source: History of Jersey County, Illinois, published 1919.

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 Elsah Township - 2,092 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

4 since 2010

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Principia College Historic District between 2010 and 2011, burning about 37 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
Debris and open burning	2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2

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

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
6 April 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	35 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	11406001
2 April 2011	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	11402002
2 April 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	11402004
5 March 2010	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	10305001

Every fire recorded in Jersey County

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 Principia College Historic District: 5 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
Twin Rivers Sand Pit No. 2	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Columbia Quarry Company	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Grafton Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Unnamed Limestone Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Western Whiting Company Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Jersey County

Storms near this property

15 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Elsah, the town this property stands in, in 15 storm reports between 2000 and 2022: 9 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 1 tornado, 1 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
March 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Elsah	$5,000	Thunderstorm winds blew over a large outside play structure that was anchored. Also, numerous large tree limbs were blown down in the area.
June 2019	Flood	Elsah	-	The Mississippi River at Grafton, IL remained at it's highest levels between the morning of June 2nd and the morning of June 12th. In Grafton, a number of homes and businesses on the west side of Illinois Route 100 were flooded during this event.
August 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Elsah	-	Thunderstorm winds blew down several trees which blocked Elsah Road.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Elsah	-	Several power lines were blown down on Principia College Campus.
May 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Elsah	-	Thunderstorm winds blew down numerous large tree limbs and several trees.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Elsah	-	Numerous large tree limbs were blown down around town.
May 2008	Hail	Elsah	-	Local law enforcement and trained spotters reported one inch hail near Otterville, in Grafton, and in Elsah.
April 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Elsah	-	Storm spotters reported large tree limbs down.
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Elsah	-	Storm spotters reported 16 to 18 inch diameter tree limbs down. The limbs also took some power lines down.
July 2000	Tornado (F0)	Elsah	-	Storm spotters reported a brief tornado which only damaged a few trees.
April 2013	Hail	Elsah	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	Elsah	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	Elsah	-	no account filed
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Elsah	-	no account filed
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Elsah	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Jersey 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
Elsah Historic District	0.7 miles	1973
New Piasa Chautauqua Historic District	2.2 miles	1982
Grafton Boat Works	4.4 miles	2022
Charles Brainerd House	4.5 miles	1998
John and Amelia McClintock House	4.5 miles	1994
Grafton Bank	4.6 miles	1994

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 93001605 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Jersey County	All 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.
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.