Rock Island Arsenal, Building No. 138, Second Avenue between South Avenue & Ramsey Street, Rock Island, Rock Island County, IL

Significance: After taking command of Rock Island Arsenal in 1865, General Thomas Jefferson Rodman devised a master plan for the installation calling for the construction of ten large manufacturing shops, five on each side of the island's major east-west thoroughfare. These core manufacturing structures were supplemented by a variety of administrative, residential, maintenance, storage, and utility buildings. Although only a few buildings were erected prior to Rodman's death in 1871, subsequent construction under Rodman's nineteenth-century successors closely conformed to the original plan. Forming a cohesive architectural statement that is unique among Midwest government installations, the Rodman plan buildings are the administrative and technological core of Rock Island Arsenal, one of only two "old-line, nineteenth-century arsenals still in operation for munitions production. The buildings are vital for understanding the history of American ordnance development and manufacture from the Spanish American War to the present. Constructed in 1886 in a storage area south of the stone manufacturing shops, the Lumber Shed was one of the last buildings erected under the general scope of the Rodman plan. Although considerably less ornate than the Greek Revival manufacturing buildings, its classical style harmonized with the architectural tone of the earlier Rodman plan buildings. The structure is part of the Rock Island Arsenal National Register Historic District.
Survey number: HAER IL-20-N
Building/structure dates: 1886 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1898 Subsequent Work
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 69000057