Melvin Price Federal Building and United States Courthouse

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois (in case citations, S.D. Ill.) is a federal district court covering approximately the southern third of the state of Illinois. Appeals from the Southern District of Illinois are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appealed to the Federal Circuit). It has three courthouses, at Benton, Cairo, and East St. Louis. At present, four judges are assigned to this district.

East St. Louis is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois. It is directly across the Mississippi River from Downtown St. Louis, Missouri and the Gateway Arch National Park. East St. Louis is in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois. Once a bustling industrial center, like many cities in the Rust Belt, East St. Louis was severely affected by the loss of jobs due to industrial restructuring during the second half of the 20th century. In 1950, East St. Louis was the fourth-largest city in Illinois when its population peaked at 82,366. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 18,469, less than one-quarter of the 1950 census and a decline of almost one third since 2010. A recent addition to the city's waterfront is the Gateway Geyser. On the grounds of Malcolm W. Martin Memorial Park, the fountain is the second-tallest in the world. Designed to complement the Gateway Arch across the river in St. Louis, it shoots water to a height of 630 feet (190 m), the same height as the arch.

The East St. Louis massacre was a series of labor and race-related attacks by White Americans who murdered between 39 and 150 African Americans in late May and early July 1917. Another 6,000 black people were left homeless, and the burning and vandalism cost approximately $400,000 ($8.46 million in 2021) in property damage. The events took place in and near East St. Louis, Illinois, an industrial city on the east bank of the Mississippi River, directly opposite the city of St. Louis, Missouri. The July 1917 episode in particular was marked by white-led violence throughout the city. The multi-day rioting has been described as the "worst case of labor-related violence in 20th-century American history", and among the worst racial riots in U.S. history. In the aftermath, the East St. Louis Chamber of Commerce called for the resignation of the local police chief because officers were told not to shoot white rioters and were unable to suppress the violence and destruction. A number of black people left the city permanently; black enrollment in public schools in the area had dropped by 35% by the time schools opened in the fall. At the end of July, some 10,000 black citizens marched in silent protest in New York City in condemnation of the riot.

5th & Missouri is a St. Louis MetroLink station. It is located in downtown East St. Louis, Illinois and primarily serves as a MetroBus transfer and commuter station featuring 322 park and ride spaces.

The Majestic Theatre is a historic movie theater located at 240–246 Collinsville Ave. in East St. Louis, Illinois. Built in 1928, the theater replaced a 1907 theater which had burned down. The Spanish Gothic theater was designed by the Boller Brothers, who were nationally prominent theater architects. Multicolored tiles decorate the building's front facade, forming patterned mosaics. The front facade also features piers with decorative peaks and tall arched windows. The theater attracted numerous celebrities to its grand opening, and it represented several firsts among East St. Louis cinemas; it was the first in the city with a modern air conditioning system and the first in Southern Illinois to show talkies. The theater closed in the 1960s. The theater was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 9, 1985.

The Spivey Building is a 12-story skyscraper located at 417 Missouri Avenue in East St. Louis, Illinois. Built in 1927, the building is the only skyscraper ever constructed in East St. Louis. Architect Albert B. Frankel designed the building in the Commercial style. The building's design features terra cotta spandrels separating its windows vertically and brick pier dividing its window bays. The asymmetrical entrance is surrounded by decorative marble piers, and the first two stories are separated from the rest of the building by a cornice and sill. The top of the building features a two-story parapet with terra cotta surrounds at each window and seven capitals at its peak. During the height of East St. Louis' prosperity through the 1950s, the building housed the offices of professionals in many fields who were considered among the best in the city. However, the building became a victim of the city's steep economic decline and has been abandoned for several decades.The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 17, 2002.

The Downtown East St. Louis Historic District is a historic commercial district in downtown East St. Louis, Illinois. The district includes 35 buildings, 25 of which are contributing buildings, along Collinsville Avenue, Missouri Avenue, and St. Louis Avenue; all but one of the buildings was historically used for commercial purposes. While development in the area dates back to the late 19th century, the first of the extant buildings in the district were built around 1900 after a tornado devastated the area in 1896. By 1910, the area had become a prosperous commercial district with stores, offices, and entertainment venues; surviving buildings from this period include the Murphy Building and the Cahokia Building. Another large building boom took place in the 1920s, adding buildings such as the Spivey Building, the city's only skyscraper; the Union Trust Bank Company Building, the largest bank in the city; the Grossman Building; and the Majestic Theatre. The new buildings both coincided with a population and economic expansion in the city and allowed it to forge an architectural identity distinct from neighboring St. Louis.Beginning in the 1960s, East St. Louis and its downtown entered a period of dramatic decline. Several major businesses left the city for other suburbs, urban decay and blight struck the city, resulting in the abandonment or demolition of several major commercial buildings. In addition, the rise of the automobile and the construction of new expressways took foot traffic away from the downtown area, furthering the decline of its businesses. The city's population is now one-third of its peak in 1950, and many of the district's buildings are abandoned and at risk of demolition or major decay.The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 17, 2014.

The Union Trust Bank Company Building is a historic bank building located at 200 Collinsville Avenue in downtown East St. Louis, Illinois.

The Broadview Hotel is a historic hotel building located at 415 E. Broadway in East St. Louis, Illinois. The Classical Revival hotel was constructed in 1927. From its opening until the 1950s, the hotel was one of the finest in East St. Louis. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

State Community College of East Saint Louis (District 601) and its short-lived successor Metropolitan Community College (District 541) were two community college districts in East Saint Louis, Illinois in the late 20th century. The State Community College of East Saint Louis was formed around 1969 by the Illinois General Assembly by Public Act No. 76–724 (1969 Ill. Laws 1489, 110 ILCS 805/2-12.1). Unlike other community colleges in Illinois, State Community College was formed as an "experimental" district controlled directly by the Illinois Community College Board and funded by the State of Illinois.After a public referendum to abolish the State Community College, a replacement college district, Metropolitan Community College (District 541), was founded around 1995 with its own board of trustees. SCC's North Central accreditation was transferred to MCC effective July 1, 1996. That college and district was dissolved by the ICCB effective January 1, 1999, after the ICCB noted problems with financial and student enrollment reporting. A board member and the mayor of East St. Louis sued the ICCB over the dissolution, but their case was dismissed.Its campus is now the East St. Louis Community College Center, operated by a consortium of community colleges and Southern Illinois University campuses.

East St. Louis Community College Center (ESLCCC) serves as host to Illinois community colleges operating satellite campuses in the city of East St. Louis, Illinois. Students can attend community college classes within their home community. ESLCCC is located at the East St. Louis Higher Education Campus in East St. Louis at 601 James R. Thompson Blvd.

The Manhattan Club was a nightclub located at 1312 Broadway in East St. Louis, Illinois. The club has a prominent place in Greater St. Louis music history. It is best known for being the club where teenaged Tina Turner met her future husband, bandleader Ike Turner. The building was destroyed by fire in 2010.