“The town has a population of fifteen thousand now, and is progressing with a healthy growth. It was night, and we could not see details, for which we were sorry, for Keokuk has the reputation of being a beautiful city. It was a pleasant one to live in long ago, and doubtless has advanced, not retrograded, in that respect.”

Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi

We explored the residential neighborhood on the west side of downtown (which we’ll look at tomorrow), and there is a wealth of interesting housing.

This house in particular, in a strong Gothic Revival style, sits on a large corner lot. Definitely not a church, but it even has a tower that could be mistaken for a spire on one side.

There are also simpler houses such as these hipped roof examples below.

There are also houses such as the one below that while not possessing Italianate ornament, the massing of the buiding is still of that style.

The Roman Catholic Church of All Saints is a landmark in the neighborhood, its soaring Gothic Revival tower dominating the skyline.

Originally built as the parish of St. Peter’s, today’s church is the consolidation of St. Mary’s and St. Francis de Sales with St. Peter’s, which dates back to 1856.

The church is obviously much later and was built in 1878 by a Chicago architect, William Dillenberg, and perhaps shows how the railroads were starting to siphon off the influence of the steamboat oriented St. Louis connection to Keokul.

The Wells-Carey School, below from 1924, however does show the influence of St. Louis architect William Ittner.

Below we see more Italianate houses built of wood, which was surely brought from the Northwoods either on the river or by the railroads.

With a later house sneaking in, of course.

I love this house below, which is sort of a Gothic Revival cottage but yet has a Romanesque round window in the gable.

Below is Immanuel United Methodist Church, a fascinating use of the Classical Revival in ecclesiastic architecture, with the Pantheon in Rome being the obvious prototype as well as other Renaissance models.