Posted July 26, 201014 yr Galena, Illinois (Warning: Lots of Photos) The county seat of Jo Daviess County, Galena is located in the Mississippi River Driftless Area of where Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin come together. President Ulysses S. Grant kept a home here. Today the population is just shy of 3500, but it was once the 2nd most populous city in Illinois behind Chicago. Galena is now a busy tourist destination with shops, restaurants, golf, and ski resorts. Nearly all of the downtown and historic districts have largely remained unchanged. This is a VERY photogenic town. Enjoy :-) Typical street scene Up one of the ridges Inside one of the art/crystal shops Ice Cream Shop Complete with 1930's Soda Fountain DeSoto House Hotel (oldest operating hotel in Illinois, 1855) Grant and Lincoln both stayed here Catholic Church United Methodist Church Up the stairs to the top of the bluff View overlooking the town Bench Street scene Residence on High Street Galena Post Office (built in 1857, still in use) Old school: Views from Galena's Grant Park (aptly named): Future Amtrak Route (Chicago to Rockford to Dubuque) The local grocery store! LOL
July 26, 201014 yr Cute town. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
July 26, 201014 yr wow. that town looks like its plucked out of somewhere more east of there. looking good.
July 26, 201014 yr Amazing little town. I drove through there years ago, before it became such a tourist destination, but had gotten my schedule jammed up and didn't have time to stop. Thanks for the tour. Galena should have a funicular! (Dubuque has a small one)
July 27, 201014 yr Wow! That first shot had me hooked in two seconds. What an awesome little town. I agree with Atlas. The town looks like a little hillside Pennsylvania/West Virginia town. Great photos!!
July 28, 201014 yr Great pics. Great town. How is the residential? Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to check out the historic residential districts.....spent most of the time downtown (dodging the rain). But I could only imagine that it's as impressive as the business district!
July 28, 201014 yr Impressive! Love the curving streets and buildings. Yes! I think the fact that the town is built following the lay of the land (not to mention that only one of the shops is a national chain) really adds to the Old-world/mountain town/European village charm.
July 28, 201014 yr Nice town and it shows how attractive and interesting a historic downtown area can be. I was immediately struck by the similarities between Galena's downtown building stock and that found in the OTR (Over-the-Rhine) district in Cincinnati. If anything, the OTR stock is even more impressive architecturally, but there the similarities end. Galena is miles ahead of the OTR in terms of overall restoration and revitalizing the downtown commercial district. The town's historic housing stock is among the most impressive in Illinois; hope you get a chance to photograph some of these residential gems in the future.
July 28, 201014 yr well, comparing otr to galena isn't really a fair or worthy one, considering OTR is significantly larger than galena's historic district...not to mention the social issues the neighborhood has had to deal with.
July 28, 201014 yr Atlas, all of your points are valid, but I hope the OTR continues to go in this direction-if a small burg in Illinois can do it and subsequently cash in on the crowds of tourists that flock to see the architecture and history there, then Over-the-Rhine residents and owners can do the same despite many other obstacles.
July 31, 201014 yr WGN has a news segment called "Cruising Illinois" in which reporter Julian Crews visits different areas throughout the state of Illinois. One of their episodes featured Galena and it certainly looked very unique, particularly for a location in Illinois. Great to see some photos now of Galena! The steep hills near the Mississippi River make for a particularly impressive setting.
August 3, 201014 yr Galena was frequently featured in Chicago media. This was as far back as the 1960s, when the Sunday papers would do features on the place, both as a tourist destination for a trip from a Chicago and about the start of the restoration movement there, and about the place as a destination for antiquing. If y'all don't know, Galena was sort of the trading capital of a "settlement island" somewhat beyond the frontier due to the lead mining in this area (Dubuque, on the Iowa side, also was a mining center). Galena's trading area reached into southern Wisconsin to serve the "badgers" (nickname for the lead miners). So the place grew due to this mining & trading economy, grew to be the largest town upriver from St Louis. When Chicago moved into railroading the first railroad projected out of Chicago was the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, showing how Chicago boosters wanted to connect to the Mississippi via this still (at that time) large river port. So the place is a time warp back to the antebellum era. Sort of like some of the Ohio River towns around here like, say, Madison (Madison would be a good Ohio River example of a Galena-type economic history).
August 4, 201014 yr "Galena" is also the name of a mineral from which lead is derived. The reason why those streets are so photogenic is because they are curved. Every street in Over-the-Rhine is straight, so you can't close a view except at T-intersections. The exception is McMicken Street, and perhaps sections of Central Parkway. Every big city in the United States seems to have some old town getaway within an hour or two drive. In Cincinnati's case I think of Metamora, Indiana, a little town that comes alive on summer weekends where you can buy your ice cream and confectionaries as well as take a horse drawn carriage ride.
August 10, 201014 yr Great tour. I stopped there a few years back. It is a gem of a town (even if a bit touristy). Wonderful old buildings and great setting. Thanks for sharing your pics.
August 10, 201014 yr I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE GALENA!!! I was shocked by how beautiful it was the first time I visited. It's small, but every nook and cranny is beautiful and intimate in this town. And yes, the residential areas are just as beautiful. Driving into town from the North on US-20, you get the feeling you're driving back in time when you come down those rolling hills. It is worth a 1-2 hour detour.
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