Built in 1893, 704 W. High St. has been part of the local Champaign-Urbana community for more than 130 years. Throughout most of the 1900s, the residence served as a quaint single-family home for generations of families in historic Urbana. By 1980, the house was primarily rented out by students, located just blocks away from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus.

Many local artists and creators have lived at 704 W. High St. throughout its history, while the house has also hosted decades of live concerts for local and national touring bands. Influential American rock acts like Sleater-Kinney and Smoking Popes are among those who have been said to have performed at the house, where crowds of college students used to gather to watch bands play inside a halfpipe that once stood in the backyard. Over the years, artists have performed on the back porch, in the living room, and in the basement.

Local property investor Fred Krauss (father of renowned Americana musicians Viktor and Alison Krauss) purchased 704 W. High St. in March 1980 and officially began renting it to college students each school year. By the mid-1990s Fred passed the property on to his son Viktor who continued to rent to students and artists alike, just as his father did, until selling the home in 2001. 

Among the young artists who lived there during the 1990s was local photographer Chris Strong, who left his ever-lasting fingerprint on the house’s history in 1999 when he photographed its front-facing facade. Later that fall, local band American Football would use the photo as the cover art for their debut album. The contemporary legend of 704 W. High St. officially took root when Strong snapped his iconic, low-angled photograph, which captures the house at night – a single light on inside the upstairs bedroom overlooking the front yard.

Despite American Football disbanding shortly after that 1999 album, their debut record gained a cult following and is now considered one of the most influential emo albums in the history of the genre. Strong’s photo of the house became one of the lasting images of the band, making it a pseudo-mascot for American Football and, oftentimes, the entire music genre itself. After the band reunited in 2014, American Football continued to lean into the imagery of the house, using it as the backdrop for their live performances, filming a music video at the home for their song “Never Meant,” and once again using photographs of the house in 2016 for their long-awaited second album. Strong took new photographs of the house for the band’s second album, this time inviting fans inside by taking a snapshot from the interior staircase, looking out onto High Street through the front door.

In recent years, 704 W. High St.’s legend has continued to grow online, where Strong’s photograph has become the subject of countless memes about American Football and emo culture as a whole, introducing new generations of fans to the band and its history. During the COVID-19 pandemic, 704 W. High St. was also digitally recreated in Minecraft to host “Nether Meant”, one of the first virtual concerts during lockdown. 

Visitors from across the world have made what’s become known as the “emo pilgrimage” to visit The American Football House: standing at a marked-off spot on the sidewalk and snapping selfies or recreating their own version of Strong’s iconic photograph. The ceremonial trek led VICE Magazine to call the house "one of music's biggest monuments,” and its address is now appropriately designated a “place of worship” on Google Maps.

By the 2020s, the house’s future became uncertain when a proposal to the city of Urbana requested rezoning multiple properties along the 700 block of High St., including 704, which would have allowed for dramatic redevelopment along the quaint West Urbana street. Dozens of community members spoke out against plans to rezone the property, and a City of Urbana planning commission unanimously voted against the request. After hearing the news, Strong and members of American Football partnered with local label Polyvinyl Records, photographer Atiba Jefferson and the Illinois-based Open House Contemporary to purchase the home with the intention of preserving 704 W. High St. and building upon its over 130-year history in the community.

“The town hasn’t always stayed the same, but that street and that house have,” Viktor Krauss said after driving past the house during the summer of 2024. “It looks exactly the same.”

House history written by Sean Neumann