You might be surprised that in forty years since first arriving in St. Louis, I had never been to Eckert’s, the famous orchard which interestingly lies partially within the city limits of Belleville. Not surprisingly, we were immediately interested in the large farm house in the Italianate style, which sits high up on a hill…
Tag: Illinois
Family Farm, Mid March 2026
We made our first trip up to the family farm and things were looking good. While it was overcast at first, the sun came out finally. There was a bull in the barn, but other than him there were no other cattle around. The power lines a mile or so away captured my attention, as…
Kaskaskia, West Side of the Mississippi
We visited Illinois recently without having to cross the Mississippi River. Yes, it’s possible, in what of the stranger parts of the greater St. Louis region south down Interstate 55. Back in November of 2010, we saw the remnants of the colonial town of Kaskaskia, that once sat along the banks of the Kaskaskia River,…
Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, Peoria
I stumbled upon this Catholic church in downtown Peoria when I was visiting nearby. The parish dates from 1878 but the current church is from 1903. While it’s known as the Sacred Heart of Jesus, when looking at the cornerstone, it says Herz Jesu Kirche, so I will assume it was a German national church…
Family Farm and Environs, Early November 2025
I visited the family farm east of Peoria for the last time this year, but will be back up in the spring, as usual. The harvest has been over for weeks, so the landscape has been transformed to the fallow fields with its stark beauty. I photographed this corn crib to the northwest of the…
Moline, Illinois
Moline is contiguous with Rock Island, so we entered the former from the west. Moline is famous for being the home of several industries, including an elevator manufacturer and John Deere, which everyone has heard of. First up is the former headquarters of Montgomery Elevator Company, which is now abandoned. The tower functioned as the…
Rock Island, Illinois, Part Two
We next headed down to what I think is the Old Chicago neighborhood of Rock Island, which has seen redevelopment and the construction of mixed-income public housing. The color blue has also been a popular choice for the older houses. Unlike Davenport, Rock Island has most definitely chosen to have a levee, which is straight…
Rock Island, Illinois, Part One
The original railroad bridge that first crossed the Mississippi River in 1856 between Rock Island and Davenport is long gone, but there are obviously new spans to replace it. The Government Bridge, which we drove across to Illinois to visit the two cities that make up half of the Quad Cities, is quite the hulking…
Nauvoo, Illinois
We visited the historic Mormon settlement of Nauvoo on our journey north up the Mississippi River looking at Iowa cities back in May. Of course, Nauvoo is in Illinois, and it is in an isolated corner of the state. There are numerous houses and other buildings from the historic period that have been restored, and…
Storms, Central Illinois, August 2025
I determined with a weather app on my phone that the lightning I was witnessing was over fifty miles away, so I thought I would see what my iPhone would capture. These are raw, unedited photos that I thought turned out interesting. I never tried photographing thunderstorms so far away in the pitch darkness of…