The Jennings Ford Automobile Dealership is a historic automobile dealership located at 431 South 4th Street in Springfield, Illinois. Ford dealer Frank Jennings built the dealership in 1919. The automobile became widespread in Springfield in the 1910s; Jennings Ford was one of several dealerships to open on South 4th Street, which was then the city's automobile row. The three-story building integrated every major function of an auto dealership at the time; it included a sales floor, a service center, a car wash, a storage garage, and a repainting facility. While Jennings Ford closed between 1927 and 1933, the building remained a car dealership through the 1950s. It is one of the few remaining dealership buildings in downtown Springfield and is the best-preserved of the survivors.[2] Today, the building houses an operations center for Illinois National Bank.[3]
Jennings Ford Automobile Dealership | |
 | |
  Location in Illinois  Location in United States | |
| Location | 431 S. Fourth St., Springfield, Illinois |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 39°47′51″N 89°39′4″W / 39.79750°N 89.65111°W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Architect | Harry Reiger |
| Architectural style | Early Commercial |
| NRHP reference No. | 06000450[1] |
| Added to NRHP | May 31, 2006 |
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 31, 2006.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ Gihl, Tom (October 2005). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Jennings Ford Automobile Dealership" (PDF). National Park Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-01-23. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
- ^ Schaefer, Marilyn Titone. "Operations Center INB's 21st Century, Electronic Vault". Archived from the original on 2016-11-08. Retrieved 2016-11-08.