Belleville, IL: Walking Tour in 4K
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 เม.ย. 2022
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George Blair named the city of Belleville, IL in 1814. Because Blair donated an acre of his land for the town square and an additional 25 acres adjoining the square for the new county seat, the legislature transferred the county seat from the village of Cahokia. The latter had been established by French colonists as a mission village in the late 17th century. Belleville, IL was incorporated as a village in 1819, and became a city in 1850. It is said that Blair named the city Belleville (French for "beautiful city") because he believed that a French name would attract new residents. Major immigration in the mid-19th century to this area occurred following revolutions in Germany, and most of the European-American population is of German ancestry.
Many of the educated Germans fled their homeland after the failure of the German Revolution in 1848. Belleville was the center of the first important German settlement in Illinois. By 1870, an estimated 90% of the city's population was either German-born or of German descent.
After the Civil War, Belleville became a manufacturing center producing nails, printing presses, gray iron castings, agricultural equipment, and stoves. Belleville became known as "The Stove Capital of the World." The first brewery in Illinois was established in Belleville. In 1868, Gustav Goelitz founded the candy company that is known today as "Jelly Belly.“ An immense deposit (400,000 acres (1,600 km2)) of bituminous coal was found in St. Clair County. By 1874, some farmers had become coal miners. One hundred shaft mines were in operation in and around Belleville. The coal brought the steam railroad to town, which allowed for the transport of many tons of coal to be shipped daily from Belleville to St. Louis on the west side of the Mississippi River, for use in its industries, homes and businesses. Later, Belleville had the first electric trolley in the state.
The first style of houses in Belleville were simple brick cottages, known locally as "German street houses" or "row houses." Architectural styles flourished in greater variety, featuring American Foursquare, French Second Empire, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, and Victorian. The Belleville Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, comprises 73 contributing properties.
Belleville's early German immigrants were educated, with most of them having graduated from German universities. They were nicknamed "Latin Farmers" because of this. After 1836 Gustav Koerner contributed to establish the city's public library. The Belleville Public Library is the state's oldest, predating the Illinois State Library by three years. The German settlers also founded choral and dramatic groups, as well as literary societies. They established one of the first kindergartens in the country here.
A lovely stroll through the neighborhood. Over there, the weather is just wonderful.
Thanks so much!
Beautiful day there and a nice, relaxing walk. I used to live in Chicago and always enjoyed visiting some of the small towns in Illinois when I had the chance. Thank you for the great tour, my friend. Greetings from Arizona! 🥰❤👍
Thanks for watching! I love that part of Illinois. Well, maybe not when it's hot and humid. But the towns are really nice!
it's a suburb of St Louis, not really a small town. Get beyond the metro east, and you'll truly visit small town Illinois.
@@WanderingWalksofWonder now try visiting Belleville's neighbor to the west, a small town called East St Louis! Just make sure you go after dark!! ;)
It would have been a pleasure to walk through this.
It really is a fun place to explore and tons of history in the area.
Really nice place to explore. Beautiful scenery with clear blue sky 👍
It really is!
I dare you to go to the west side of Belleville that borders East St Louis, I'm sure they'll welcome you with open arms in East St Louis!
This is beautiful place very clean surroundings great walking tour
Yes it is
Wow! Such a nice city. Nice and relax walk. Keep up good work. I support your channel.
Thank you so much!
Beautiful gothic Cathedral, the city is so clean. Nice work!!
Yes! Thank you!
Beautiful walk around. The weather is so nice over there
Yes it was!
it's greater St Louis, give it a day, and there'll be snow! For real, the St Louis area is known for large weather swings in spring.
I am from belleville and walk the same route every day! I also have documented my walks and love the idea and the peaceful content. flattering job on the camera work. So are you local?
That is awesome! I don't live there - a KC resident all my life. But, I do love exploring places like Belleville and seeing the buildings and learning about the history of different towns and cities.
This is downtown Belleville, the largest city in the metro east (Illinois portion of the St Louis metropolitan area). I know it quite well, quite very, very well.
It's really a great place. I use to go every Christmas time to do a cookie walk and see all the gingerbread houses in the store windows. That was a great experience as well!
Amazing walking tour
Thanks!
beautiful walking tour my friend keep uploding.
Thank you so much 🙂
It doesn't say it in the descrip, so I will, this isn't a samll town in Illinois, it's a St Louis suburb in what's known as the Metro East.
Still beautiful as ever! Such a lovely video! Thank you!🤗🌹❤🌹❤
Thank you! Cheers!
this is the main drag in belleville, walk a couple blocks to either side of that street and youll get a good idea of what belleville really looks like.
There are beautiful, historic districts both north and south of Main Street? But yes, there are rough parts of Belleville, too. Particularly on the west end.
Thank you for making such a beautiful video. Belleville is a nice town, but that 60Minutes video is what we went through when we first moved to Belleville in 1985 from Wisconsin. Being Afro American in this city was horrible. Besides that I truly love this city and been here over 36 years. As you can see a city can stay peaceful and clean if we just put forth the effort.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I am black is belleville il diverse
I wish I could have seen the street signs.
Thanks. I will work to do a better job on that in the future. Thanks for watching!
Don't walk in West Belleville at night lol.
When you use the word "tour" you are supposed to talk and point out things and places. Give information, insight, history, fun facts. All this is is a walk. A very boring and uneventful waste of time.
That video was made about two years ago. Last year I began adding more commentary to my videos with history details and info on key buildings and people in the places where I film. It took several years to build the confidence to narrate a video - but it’s been good doing that. Hopefully you’ll check out a newer video and see if that’s better.
@@WanderingWalksofWonderdon’t worry about that rude comment. An image is worth a thousand words 😉. Thank you so much for the video, I found it lovely. The lack of words makes it neutral and relaxing. Wonderful.