The City has engaged the Ramsey Historic Consultants firm to prepare a National Register Nomination for Rochelle’s Downtown Historic District. The tasks included in the project are as follows: coordinate with the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office and the City of Rochelle to establish district boundaries and project schedule, preliminary research, field survey and photography, additional research and preparation of draft nomination, submission of final nomination, public meetings and presentation to the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council.

Historic Districts act as a way of maintaining the history and telling the story of the community while providing access to a key financing tool, the 20% historic tax credit. These financing tools act as the key for struggling downtowns where property values sometimes do not justify the cost to improve these buildings. The tax credit acts as the gap filler and makes a project less risky for a bank and therefore more attractive for investment. In order to access the credit, the redevelopment projects must meet the Standards for Rehabilitation, which ensures a development product that honors the architecture and history of the building. Should a building owner not wish to utilize historic tax credits, they have the liberty to make changes to the building however they please; they are not constricted by the designation as a National Register Historic District.

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Title Date

National Register of Historic Places (pdf, 617 KB)

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National Register of Historic Places in Illinois

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