Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
From the record
“The Chicago Great Western Railroad Depot is a historic railway station in the village of Elizabeth, Illinois, U.S. It was built in 1877-78 and like many rural stations along the Chicago Great Western Railroad it was cast in Stick style.”
Wikipedia article Elizabeth station (Illinois), CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 17 National Register listings published here for Jo Daviess County · listed in 1996 · category: Building.
National Register reference number.96000098- 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 Village of Elizabeth is situated near the township line, between the Townships of Elizabeth and Woodbine. The historical fort of the Black Hawk War was situated near the same line ; and, in fact, the history.of the two townships maintain, throughout, such intimate connection that it is thought advisable to unite them in our historical sketch.
The valley probably had no white visitor until the coming of A. P. Van Matre, in 1825. The. legend is current that Mr. Van Matre was asked by an Indian girl whom he met, what he was seeking for. Upon replying that he was prospecting for mineral, he received the proposal, that if he would marry her, she would show him a good lead of mineral. He, doubtless, considered the bargain a very good one, and accepted it, when he was made acquainted with the diggings in the hollow, near Elizabeth, which have received his name. Here, on the bank of the river, he built the first smelting furnace in that part of the county, and also built a house on the opposite side of the river, where he continued to live and mine. The diggings were not exhausted for more than a dozen years.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 10 fires within 5 miles of Chicago Great Western Railroad Depot
between 2008 and 2010, burning about 32 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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/undetermined
6
Debris and open burning
2
Equipment and vehicle use
1
Arson/incendiarism
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
9 workings within 5 miles of Chicago Great Western Railroad Depot: 5 past producers, 3 unknowns, 1 producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Lead, Zinc, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Zinc, Lead. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Elizabeth, the town this property stands in, in 21 storm reports between 1994 and 2026: 13 thunderstorm wind, 6 hail, 2 heavy rain.
The reports record 2 injuries. 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.
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.
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.
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