Alton Township, Madison County, Illinois

Alton ( AWL-tən) is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about 18 miles (29 km) north of St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 25,676 at the 2020 census. It is a part of the River Bend area in the Metro-East region of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. It is famous for its limestone bluffs along the river north of the city, as the former location of the state penitentiary, and for its role preceding and during the American Civil War. It was the site of the last Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debate in October 1858. The former state penitentiary in Alton was used during the Civil War to hold up to 12,000 Confederate prisoners of war.

The Old Rock House was the home of Reverend Thaddeus Beman Hurlbut, who was the pastor of the Upper Alton Presbyterian Church (also known as the College Avenue Presbyterian Church) and a friend of Elijah Parish Lovejoy. It is located at 2705 College Avenue in Alton, Illinois. It was built in 1834–1835 by Henry Caswell and John Higham. It was a double-dwelling building, with John Higham on the east side. In 1927, the house was owned by Dr. Isaac Moore.The first meeting to organize the Illinois Anti-Slavery Society was held on October 26, 1837. From meeting notes, the meeting started at the church, but due to "disorderly elements", the meeting ended. It was rescheduled for the following day at the Rock House, where the society was organized. This happened just before the pro-slavery riots in Alton on October 28.It was a station on the Underground Railroad. Located along the Mississippi River, it was a refuge for freedom seekers from Missouri and Southern slave states. Abolitionists and free blacks helped former enslaved people make it from one station to the next location on the Underground Railroad. Tunnels underneath the Lewis and Clark Community College campus were used to help people gain their freedom. Lyman Trumbull of Alton wrote the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which abolished slavery in America.College Avenue Presbyterian Church and the Rock House are across College Avenue from each other. A historical marker for both buildings is located at College Avenue and Clawson Street.

The Alton Museum of History and Art, sometimes known as the Robert Wadlow Museum, in Alton, Illinois was founded in 1971 as a not for profit organization. It is located in Loomis Hall, named for Rev. Hubbel Loomis, on the grounds of the former Rock Spring Alton Baptist Seminary established by missionary John Mason Peck, later renamed Shurtleff College, and presently the home of the Southern IL University School of Dental Medicine. The building, which has Underground Railroad history, was constructed as the original chapel/classroom of the seminary c.1820 and the sanctuary was modified in the early 1900s to be a two-story building with a rear classroom and laboratory addition. The building is the state's second oldest remaining college building.Although most known for its collection related to Robert Wadlow (the Alton Giant), it also has exhibits on Lewis & Clark, the Alton Confederate Prison and the Lincoln–Douglas debates as well as that of the region's Native American populations. It serves to help preserve the history and heritage of its community; it continues to demonstrate the artistic interests and achievement of its residents.The museum also owns two homes in the town, the Koenig House and the Wilhelm House, which were donated to the museum by Corida Koenig Hanna in 1987. The Koenig House was repaired in 1990, but both homes present challenges for the museum despite their uses for programming. The museum temporarily closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and remains closed as of 2023.

Shurtleff College was a Baptist liberal arts school in Alton, Illinois until 1957.

Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine is an academic unit of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) located in Alton, Illinois, United States, in the Greater St. Louis area. The school is one of three dental schools in the state of Illinois and is mandated with the mission "to improve the oral health of the people of Southern Illinois and the region through education, patient care, scholarship and service".A part of the Southern Illinois University system, the school has nearly 200 students (about 50 in each entering class) and provides a fully accredited and nationally recognized dental education.

Western Military Academy was a private military preparatory school located in Alton, Illinois, United States. It operated from 1879 to 1971. The campus is part of the National Register of Historic Places District (ID.78001167). The school motto was Mens Sana in Corpore Sano ("A sound mind in a sound body").

The Upper Alton Historic District is a historic district located in northeast Alton, Illinois, in what was once the separate town of Upper Alton. The district includes the campuses of Shurtleff College and the Western Military Academy as well as the surrounding residential areas. Upper Alton was platted in 1817, but it did not grow significantly until the 1830s, when Shurtleff College opened; the college dominated the town for decades, and most of the houses around it were built for the school or its professors. The college's buildings were mainly designed in the Classical Revival and Greek Revival style, while the houses were designed in the Classical Revival and Queen Anne styles. In 1879, the Western Military Academy opened in the John Bostwick House; while the house burned in 1903, the academy rebuilt immediately and continued operations. The academy's campus is mainly designed in the Tudor Revival style. Shurtleff College closed in 1957 and is now the Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine; the Western Military Academy also closed in 1971.The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 2, 1978.

The Yakel House and Union Brewery are a historic house and brewery complex located at 1421-1431 Pearl St. in Alton, Illinois. Philip Yakel, a German immigrant, built the brewery soon after coming to America in 1836. The brewery was the first in Alton and one of the city's earliest successful industries. Yakel's son George, who eventually ran the brewery alongside his father, built the house in 1863; it was the family's second home at the site. The brick home features a vernacular design influenced by German architectural tradition. William Netzhammer, a brewer from St. Louis, purchased the brewery in 1882. The Netzhammer family ran the brewery until it closed in 1952;, notably, the brewery continued production during Prohibition by making near beer.The complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 11, 1982.

Alton National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in the city of Alton, in Madison County, Illinois. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it encompasses only half an acre plot of land, and as of the end of 2005, had 522 interments. It is maintained by the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, in St. Louis, Missouri.

The Elijah P. Lovejoy Monument, also known as the Elijah Lovejoy Monument, Elijah Parrish Lovejoy Shaft, Lovejoy Monument, and Lovejoy State Memorial, is a memorial in Alton, Illinois to Elijah P. Lovejoy, an advocate of free speech and the abolition of slavery. Lovejoy had moved his press across the Mississippi River to Alton after his offices were attacked three times by pro-slavery forces at his former location in St. Louis, Missouri. He hid the press in a warehouse before setting up his new operation but was attacked again on November 7, 1837. He was fatally shot that night when the building was attacked and destroyed by a pro-slavery mob.

The Haskell Playhouse is a children's playhouse located in Haskell Park in Alton, Illinois. Dr. William Abraham Haskell, a physician and one of the wealthiest residents of Alton, commissioned the playhouse as a present for his daughter Lucy's fifth birthday in 1885. Architect Lucas Pfeiffenberger designed the playhouse in the Queen Anne style. The house's design features a raised front porch with a projecting entrance, diagonal stickwork on the porch and first floor, and fishscale shingles on the second-story gable ends. An ornamental iron fence with a small spire tops the house's hipped roof. Lucy Haskell died of diphtheria four years after her playhouse was built, and by 1916 her mother Florence (Hayner) Haskell was the only surviving Haskell still living in Alton. Florence demolished the family's home that year but kept the playhouse as a memorial to her daughter; she donated the land to the city to serve as a memorial park.The playhouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 30, 1974.

The Middletown Historic District is a historic district in Alton, Illinois. The primarily residential district includes portions of Alton's Middletown and Hunterstown neighborhoods and comprises 653 buildings, 613 of which are contributing buildings. Settlement in the district dates to the original plat of Alton in 1817, which included the southern half of Middletown. Development in the district continued through the 19th century and into the 20th, spanning all of Alton's early history. The district also represents multiple eras of Alton's architectural history. Most early houses in the district were designed in the Federal style, while the Italianate and Queen Anne styles were predominant in the latter half of the 19th century.The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 11, 1978. in 1982, the boundaries of the district were expanded to include Alton's Pagan Hill neighborhood. In January 2022, the boundaries were expanded again and now take in most of downtown Alton. The expanded area includes 134 new properties covering 11 blocks in the downtown area stretching from State Street to Ridge Street along Third Street, Broadway, and Front Street/Landmarks Boulevard.