Melvin Price Locks and Dam

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 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.

Wood River (historically, Rivière du Bois) is a 2.4-mile-long (3.9 km) tributary of the Mississippi River, which it joins near East Alton, and Wood River, Illinois, to the northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. The Wood River is formed by the confluence of its West and East forks. These come together near where they drop down from the Mississippi bluffs. The natural channel of the Wood River used to follow the Mississippi through the bottoms before joining it. This has been cut off by an artificial channel that runs through flood control structures directly to the Mississippi. In 1803, the Wood River (then known in French as '), gave its name to Camp Wood, where the Lewis and Clark expedition assembled. The West Fork of the Wood River is 16.4 miles (26.4 km) long, and the East Fork is 21.9 miles (35.2 km) long. Honeycut Branch is a major tributary of the West Fork, and Girder Branch is a major tributary of the East Fork. The mouth of the Wood River was a highly industrialized area during much of the 20th century. The Olin Chemical plant produced explosives and munitions for the wars of the last century. This remains as the Winchester ammunition plant. The Wood River petroleum refinery continues to operate on a reduced scale.

Ellis Island is an island in the Mississippi River. The island is entirely within St. Charles County, Missouri.The namesake of Ellis Island is unknown.

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 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.

Lock and Dam No. 26 was a lock and dam located near Alton, Illinois on the Upper Mississippi River around river mile 202.5. Opened in 1938, its largest lock was 600 feet long. It was demolished in 1990 and replaced by the Melvin Price Locks and Dam, which is also known as Lock and Dam number 26.

The Alton Bridge was a railroad bridge that carried the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy (later Burlington Northern) across the Mississippi River between West Alton, Missouri, and Alton, Illinois. It was located 100 yards (91 m) upriver from, and parallel to, the Old Clark Bridge. The bridge was built between 1892 and 1894 and was removed shortly after the line was abandoned in 1988. With a total length of 2,060 feet (630 m), it consisted of eight through-truss segments—six Pratt trusses, one Pennsylvania truss, and one pivot-swinging truss.

Alton Township is located in Madison County, Illinois, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 27,865 and it contained 13,266 housing units.

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.