A history of Belleville,
since 1814
Postcards, papers and photographs of Belleville from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗In 1814, George Blair Belleville after the French phrase belle ville, meaning "beautiful city". Because Blair donated an acre of his land for the town square and an additional 25 acres (10 ha) adjoining the square for the new county seat, the legislature transferred the county seat from the village of Cahokia, which French colonists had established as a mission village in the late 17th century.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Belleville’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 viewBelleville, St. Clair Co., Illino…, 1867: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Belleville, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Belleville, St. Clair Co., Illinois 1867 (1867) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.