Keystone Lofts

Keystone Lofts

Completed in 1923, the Keystone Building is the largest private office building George Grant Elmslie ever designed. Elmslie spent twenty years under Louis Sullivan — in the same office that launched Frank Lloyd Wright — before helping shape the Prairie School in his own right. Aurora holds five of his commercial buildings, more than any other city.

Its ground floor runs 165 feet along Stolp Avenue as a row of individual shopfronts, with the main entrance set beneath a patterned terra cotta screen. Inside and out, the glazed brick, ornamental iron, custom terra cotta, and terrazzo survive intact.

Fully restored, the Keystone now holds 33 loft apartments above six ground-floor retail spaces. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1980.