A history of Alton,
since 1818
Postcards, papers and photographs of Alton from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Although Alton once was growing faster than the nearby city of St. Louis, a coalition of St. Louis businessmen planned to build a competing town to stop Alton's expansion and bring business to St. Louis. The resulting town was Grafton, Illinois.
Many blocks of housing in Alton were built in the Victorian Queen Anne style. They represent a prosperous period in the river city's history. At the top of the hill in the commercial area, several stone churches and a fine city hall also represent the city's wealth during its good times based on river traffic, manufacturing, and shipping. It was a commercial center for a large agricultural area. Numerous residences on hills have sweeping views of the Mississippi River.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Alton’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewAlton, Illinois, 1854: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Alton
See all 75 →
Alton, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Alton, Illinois (1854) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Historic places
National Register · via Wikidata
From Wikimedia Commons (10), the Library of Congress (7) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.