St. Clair County and the National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places (https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP) is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Registration documents are online for twenty-seven (27) St. Clair County, Illinois, sites to date (30 Jan 2024). Photographs and drawings ordinarily accompany each nomination form. One such example:

Downtown East St. Louis Historic District
https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/84aa7a4b-9371-491b-b0fd-f5a4278f4322

NPS Form 10-900 received August 2014)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service
0MB No. 1024-0018
National Register of Historic Places Registration_ Form

Summary (from Section 7 page 4 of the submitted Registration Form)
The Downtown East St. Louis Historic District is located near the Mississippi River in East St.
Louis (St. Clair), Illinois. The District encompasses two city blocks along Collinsville Avenue,
one and a half blocks along Missouri Ave, and the south side of one block along St. Louis
Avenue. There are 44 sites in the district, 35 of which have buildings on them. Of the buildings,
25 are contributing resources and 10 are non-contributing. All of the buildings except the
Catholic Community House are commercial buildings, with the majority being one-part or two-part commercial blocks. Two of the contributing buildings are individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places: The Spivey Building (NR 01/17/2002) and the Majestic Theatre (NR
05/09/1985). The buildings in the District embody traits of the Late 19th and 20th Century
American Movements, Classical Revival, Renaissance Revival, Craftsman and Modern
Movement styles.

Photographs or Post Cards follow the Index shown here from “Sections 9-end page 52”Post card of Missouri Avenue, East St. Louis, looking west toward the intersection at Collinsville Avenue. Courtesy of the Theising Files, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, as used in the National Register of Historic Places nomination of Downtown East St. Louis, page 55, https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/84aa7a4b-9371-491b-b0fd-f5a4278f4322
1. Postcard photograph of Collinsville Avenue looking north from Broadway before
construction of the Cahokia Building.
2. Postcard photograph of the Cahokia Building before its addition.
3. Postcard view of Missouri Avenue looking west toward the intersection at Collinsville
Avenue.
4. Postcard photograph of the Murphy Building.
5. Postcard view looking south down Collinsville Avenue from St. Louis Avenue, likely
around 1915.
6. Rendering of the National Catholic Community House. Source: East St. Louis Journal,
1920.
7. Union Trust Company advertisement from 1927.
8. The First National Bank Building (originally Cahokia Building) after expansion on 1927.
The S.S. Kresge Company Building can be seen at right.
9. Postcard view looking east down Missouri Avenue showing the First National bank
Building, Union Trust Company Bank Building, Grossman Building and Spivey Building.
10. The Spivey Building upon completion in 1929.
11. State Savings and Loan Association Building upon completion.
12. The Seidel’s Apparel Company Building as it appeared in 2005.