Rock Island Arsenal, Building No. 280, Sylvan Drive, 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 conforms 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. Situated in an isolated area on the southwestern shore of the island, the Magazine was constructed under the general scope of the Rodman plan in 1872-1873. Although Rodman's successor, Colonel Daniel Webster Flagler, had plans to erect several other magazines at the arsenal, this structure was the only one built during the nineteenth century. It is part of the Rock Island Arsenal National Register Historic District.
Survey number: HAER IL-20-O
Building/structure dates: 1873 Initial Construction
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 69000057