I was visiting Granite City to see another amazing GCADD exhibit, so I thought I would photograph the downtown again, it having been five years since the last time. Everything looked the same, but there were some differences. For starters, the Moose Lodge has been demolished. The steel mill is still there for the time…
Tag: Illinois
Grandview Drive, Peoria Heights
Straddling the city of Peoria and suburb of Peoria Heights, Grandview Drive offers panoramic views of Lake Peoria, a widening of the Illinois River as its wends its way through the prairie, buffeted by bluffs to the west. Originally envisioned in 1894, construction began in 1903 and was completed several years later. Laid out like…
Washington, Illinois, Spring 2024
At the intersection of Holland and South Main streets is an ensemble of Victorian Period houses in Washington, Illinois that I have revisited over the years, the first time in 2009 and the second time at least in 2022. This first house is on the northwest corner of the intersection. On the southwest corner is…
Around the Family Farm, Spring 2024
I checked up on the family farm east of Peoria in Central Illinois the last weekend of April, and things were looking good even if the fields were very wet, delaying spring planting. It was very windy, and it was alternating sunny and cloudy all day long. No longhorns could be spotted at the neighbor’s…
Deer Creek Township, Late January 2024
A dense fog blanketed the area around my family farm in late January as snow and ice persisted on the ground. January in the country is a time of hibernation and preparation, as the spring is closer than you think. If you look closely, you can see the neighbor’s longhorns, an ubiquitous presence now for…
South Illinois Street, Belleville
I’ve looked at the area south of downtown Belleville before, but this time I found myself heading up South Illinois Avenue towards the central square where it intersects Main Street. I have to love that Second Empire house above, which looks to be coated in stucco. It’s a new height of hiding a Mansard roof!…
East of Downtown, Alton
Heading east on Fifth Street from Easton Street (named after Rufus Easton, the founder of Alton), we see some very early housing. We then angle onto the diagonal Court Street, which mysteriously exists for only about three blocks. We then hop onto Fourth Street as we head out of town. I really like this two-car…
State Street and Environs, Alton
Working my way around on Mill Street over to Carroll, I saw some of the wide variety of houses on the steep slopes of the bluffs to the west of downtown Alton. Below is looking up William Street. Finally, I turned up State Street, which is the main artery up to the bluffs above the…
Alby Street, Alton
I made it back out by the Henry Watson House, this time with the sun out, but now with a pesky overhead wire in the way! I had photographed it way back in January of 2009 on a cloudy day. Apparently the house was damaged by fire. Watson owned two quarries; I wonder if one…
Downtown, Alton
We’re going to swing back through Alton for a few days. Like Hannibal, Quincy or even Cairo, and a bunch of other towns, I can’t help but imagine that except for a few twists of fate, Alton could have been the center of a metropolitan area of two million people, or at least maybe a…