We went east to check out the small town of Breese, Illinois, which lies in Clinton County.

The main historic commercial strip is along Second Street, interestingly. Did you know that Second Street is the most common street name in the United States?

There is this nice bank building in the Beaux-Arts style, complete with an intact but probably no longer functional alarm box on the exterior.

It’s always nice and easy identifying the builders and officers of the bank when they’re chiseled in stone on the exterior. Many fields of archeology are not so lucky.

There’s also, as a counterpoint to the bank, this Modernist post office.

Perhaps what is most interesting to me is the type font and medallions showing the great seal of the United States.

There is also a still-functioning movie theater I suspect is either from the 1930s or 40s.

As you can see from this historic photo, the marquee had a much different appearance originally.

The box office has been slightly altered as well, but the theater is still in business.

There is a monument to the coal miners who died in this town; I’ll have more about them in an upcoming post.

There are some beautiful commercial buildings from the 19th Century.

We also had the opportunity to see some of the residential areas of town. There is this interesting wood frame Second Empire house, below.

Take this house, which I suspect was originally a duplex in the Carpenter Gothic style.