The Sycamore Historic District: Location 14B By Steve Bigolin - Contributing Writer

In his posthumously published 1994 book, “Sycamore (Illinois) According to Luke,” C.R. “Luke” McLagan stated that the 1902 fire that destroyed the historic Wilkins Block in downtown Sycamore gave building owner Daniel Pierce the freedom to replace it with something new and more imposing. Although the opportunity to build something on the southwest corner of State and Somonauk streets did present itself, Pierce would not live to capitalize on the matter. Five days after the blaze struck, Mr. Pierce died at age 88. His grandson Frederick B. Townsend assumed the presidency of the family bank - renamed Pierce Trust & Savings Bank after it received its state charter - on July 1, 1904, and work soon began on downtown Sycamore's newest three-story business block, the Daniel Pierce Building. Sources indicate that Dixon general contractor William J. McAlpine erected the structure. No doubt some time was required to settle the extensive estate left by Mr. Pierce. Moreover, McAlpine was heavily involved with construction of the DeKalb County Courthouse between 1903 and 1905. It should be remembered also that McAlpine built Townsend's own mansion at 331 N. Main St. in 1892. The Pierce Building would come to occupy an 80-foot frontage on West State Street, with 75 feet along Somonauk Street. Made of pressed brick and topped with a decorative metal cornice, it was Classical Revival in style. The interior was a total of 24,000 square feet on four floors, which included the basement. The bank took up the east portion of the first floor, with its entrance off West State Street. McLagan and other sources put the cost of construction at $50,000.

Space for merchants

The remainder of the first floor housed W.M. McAllister Co., a dry-goods store. Born in 1864 in Belfast, Ireland, William McAllister was the son of a farmer. One of nine children, he had worked in the dry-goods business since 1880. After arriving in America in 1887, he located at Hurley, Wis., and again engaged in dry goods. McAllister settled in 1896 in Sycamore and opened a store measuring 22 feet by 70 feet in a section of George's Block, 211 W. State St. An ad in the July 28, 1897, “Souvenir Edition of the True Republican” said the store's motto was “Your Money's Worth or Your Money Back.” From George's Block, McAllister's moved in spring 1901 a few doors down the street, where it remained until March 1905. The new Daniel Pierce Building gave McAllister's an incredible 9,800 square feet to work with, making it the largest business of its kind in Sycamore. The main-floor salesroom was 50 feet by 70 feet, with a gallery. There was another 50-by-30-foot space on the second floor. Most of that second floor was subdivided into offices for lawyers, doctors, dentists, insurance agents and other professionals, according to McLagan, who especially recalled the suite of offices that overlooked Somonauk Street. These were occupied by Judge William J. Fulton and other legal minds years ago. A 1956 streetscape cutout in the possession of the city of Sycamore includes the names “Moudry & Moudry Attorneys,” “R.C. Racine Attorney,” “E.G. Miller Dentist” and “H.L. Jennings Dentist” on the building's front windows. As McLagan commented, many different firms came and went over the years, leaving their mark on Sycamore. The third floor of the Pierce building originally contained a room known as Pierce Hall. McLagan wrote in both of his books on Sycamore that Pierce Hall for a long time was a popular dance hall where many couples who later got married began their courtships. Dances were held at intervals on Saturday nights, despite the fact that the only way people could get up to the building's top floor was to climb a lot of stairs, as there was no elevator back then. The room saw other uses, too, as a place for graduations, church bazaars, Memorial Day services, school plays and the like. Ownership of the Pierce Building changed over the years. W.M. McAllister Co. evolved into Henderson's Department Store between 1946 and 1955. In the latter year, the building's bank, which had become The National Bank & Trust Co. of Sycamore, moved across the street to 230 W. State St. The Henderson family then bought the 50-year-old structure and completely remodeled the first floor and exterior. From 1973-75, they expanded once again, and took over the entire second and third floors as well. As a result, the store came to encompass 18,000 square feet of retail space, or three-fourths of the total space in the Pierce Building, with another 6,000 square feet of storage area. Henderson's celebrated the store's 100th birthday on March 28, 1996, with great fanfare. In October 2000, the store was designated a “Retailer of the 20th Century” by the Illinois Retail Merchants Association. The association also said at the time that Henderson's was the last independently owned junior department store in the state. The business closed, however, at the end of 2000, after 104 years in operation. The venerable Pierce Building sat empty until November 2002, when the city of Sycamore purchased it. The city then converted the prominent downtown landmark into its new municipal building. According to City Manager Bill Nicklas, the Sycamore Center occupants moved into 308 W. State St. on July 7, 2003.

Street-side face-lifts

The ground-floor street façades have undergone a series of face-lifts over the years, while the upper stories remained much the way they had always looked. Display windows were altered as the times and merchandising practices changed. Originally, the only entrances into the building were from State Street, with large display windows flanking the northeast corner and helping to light the bank's interior. Double-hung windows on the second and third floors were set in six bays across the front, with five down the side. Each top-floor window still has a semicircular transom overhead. Tall brick pilasters with Ionic capitals add a decorative touch to the upper walls. The window bays are horseshoe-shaped, as distinctive today as when the building was new. The pilasters extend up to the long brick cornice containing the stone block with the name “DANIEL PIERCE BUILDING” on its face. The original bracketed cornice above this since has been replaced with a less ornate one. When Henderson's expanded into the two upper floors in the 1970s, it remodeled the exterior by covering over the windows, except for those in the stairwell at the northeast corner. This was done in such a way that the windows could be easily replaced, as happened when the city renovated the structure. Instead of double-hung windows being put in, however, energy-efficient casement windows were installed. Conversion of the Pierce Building into the Sycamore Center should help insure its existence as a downtown landmark well into the 21st century. --- Steve Bigolin is a DeKalb County history expert.