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 Mississippi River.
There must have been extensive street grading originally.
There is a wide variety of housing styles, from the earliest Greek Revival.
To the Queen Anne style, which you can see below on the left.
It seems like some are quite old, and even wood frame.
To the left below is Prospect Avenue.
The porch below is unique to a Greek Revival house, and I wonder if it is original. It is probably not.
We see the appearance of more large Second Empire houses, which perhaps don’t work well compositionally on steep grades.
We’ve now turned down Bluff Street and looped around to Belleview Avenue.
Now we’re back out onto State Street and working our way back down the hill.
SS. Peter and Paul Catholic Church is on the left, with what is clearly a more modern steeple. The congregation was founded in 1843 and the current church is from 1855. The steeple was hit by lightning and caught fire in 1949, and was rebuilt in 1950 in the new style.
More stunning Italianate houses follow.
A little break with all the Italianate houses follows further down the hill.
