Real Estate Tip

When people think of Illinois, they think of Chicago. There’s certainly a whole lot to say about Chicago, but there’s a lot more to Illinois than its world-famous city.

Bound on two sides by the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and Lake Michigan tipping off the northeast corner; Illinois has been a travel, trading, and an established native hub that dates back into the early A.D.’s. In recent centuries, Illinois became the gateway to the West and the major railway hub for America.

Historic Illinois Real Estate

Down near Collinsville, just outside of St. Louis, sits the Cahokia Mounds, a huge urban center for pre-Columbian Mississippian Native Americans. The ancient mounds are humbling in their size capturing the imagination of what must have been a remarkable city centuries ago.

Countless historical buildings dot the state with the first homebuilt in 1737. There are 262 state parks in Illinois, which are full of outdoor adventures. Illinois has over 80 lakes, 100 rivers, countless creeks, and famous working and legendary canals. Go see how one of the locks on the canals work. Watching boats and barges rise or drop in the lock and then move onward is experiencing engineering at it finest.

Abraham Lincoln, one of our countries greatest Presidents - if not the greatest, spent thirty years in Illinois and considered it his true home. Ulysses S. Grant, another great American President was also an Illinoisan.

Living up to its name as the gateway, the beginning of the westward passage, the launching pad to wild adventures; Illinois’ Chicago was the starting point to the infamous Route 66.

Take all that and combine it with some of the best museums, symphonies, amusement parks, sports teams in the world, and one of the friendliest populations in the country, you’ll realize what most Illinoisans already know. The Land of Lincoln is a fantastic place to be.

A Bit of Illinois History

Illinois has an enormous history. The site of the Cahokia Mounds is believed to have been the largest cultural, political, religious, and economic urban center in all of North America for centuries. Calculations show the city to have existed from around 650 A.D. and then mysteriously disappearing in the 1400s. The base of Monk’s Mound is about the same size as the Great Pyramid of Giza.

The area is protected and is still an active archeological site. The next major power in the region gave Illinois its name. The Illiniwek Confederation was a political alliance among several significant native American tribes.

French explorers, Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet, explored both the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers in 1673. Illinois began as part of the French empire until 1763, when the British claimed it. In 1783, the British ceded the lands to the newly formed United States becoming part of the Northwest Territory.

The Illinois Territory was founded in 1809 and became the 21st U.S. state in 1818. The southern regions of the state flooded with early settlers and they quickly spread northward, unfortunately driving out the native residents.

Chicago profited and grew as an accessible lake and canal port around 1848. Soon after, its prominence grew as Chicago became a major rail hub. By 1857, Chicago became Illinois’ reigning metropolitan city.
Illinois history expounds throughout the 19th and 20th century. The Mormon (a.k.a. the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) development of the city of Nauvoo rivaled for the title of the largest city in the state.

Well over 250,000 Illinois men served in the Union Army during the Civil War, more than any other northern state besides New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. President Lincoln’s initial and subsequent calls for troops spurred Illinoisans to develop 150 infantry regiments, 17 cavalry regiments, and 2 light artillery regiments.

In the 20th century, Illinois emerged as one of the most important states in the Union because of the transportation hubs and the major industries that relied on these hubs to export their good across the world. The development of world-class arts, music, cultural arenas and museums made the city and its state a leader of the arts in America.

Seeing Real Estate History

The outstanding and awe-inspiring museums in Chicago will take you through the beginnings of time, propel you into personal hands-on experiences of the spectacular formative and future roots of invention and industry, plunge you into the wondrous and mystifying depths of the world’s waters, and out into the enigmatic reaches of space.

Illinois has also maintained its historical buildings including its first home, the Jean Baptiste Saucier Home in Cahokia, which was built in 1737. The Pierre Ménard House in Kaskaskia was built 1802 and is considered the “Mount Vernon” of Illinois and the most famous residence in Illinois. Most of the Ménard house windows still hold their original hand-pressed panes, which were imported from France.

You’ll find two residences that housed two great American presidents. The Ulysses S. Grant House sits in Galena and was built in 1857. Abraham Lincoln’s House, built in 1839, still stands in the capital city of Springfield. Lincoln’s beloved mother’s house also is intact. The Sarah Lincoln House sits near Charleston and was built sometime in the 1830’s.

The John Marshall House in Shawneetown was erected in 1808 that was later destined to become the state’s first bank. The legendary architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, built his home in 1891 in Oak Park, reflecting the definition the modern forms of architecture.

There are extraordinary buildings and structures throughout Illinois. You can experience a whole range of American domestic architecture from the mounds of Cahokia, to primitive log cabins, to structures where greatness lived, to sophisticated modern real estate wonders.

Looking for Illinois real estate? Let Remax show you wondrous and legendary choices of homes and regions in Illinois. Drop in on us or visit our Illinois Real Estate pages.

Billings Farnsworth is a freelance writer, former Chicagoan, and Abraham Lincoln admirer.

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Tags: Illinois, French

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