A town full of old time charm

avatar

Back in the 1800's, Galena Illinois had more than its share of wealthy steam-boat captains and rich merchants. The town is on the Fever River, just 3 miles from the Mississippi River. Many of the homes that were built are on the National Register of Historic of Historic Places.

The Felt House was built around
1848 by Lucius S. Felt, who owned a dry goods store on Galena's Main Street. Today the home is called The Inn at Felt Manor and operates as a bed and breakfast. The third floor has a grand ballroom with two adjoining parlors that the Felts used for entertaining.

The double stone staircase was added in the 1860s. Called ‘Felt's Folly' by his neighbors, Lucius Felt spent $40,000 to have the steps chiseled into the limestone hillside, at a price that would be equivalent to over $1.3 million today.

Steps are important in a town as hilly as Galena.

These are the High School steps. I suppose that because the nearby town that we lived in was in a part of the state that had been scraped flat by glaciers , hills and steps were something of a novelty to us. When we visited the town my brother and I would convince my dad to drop us off at the bottom of the steps and drive to the top to pick us up. It became something of a tradition.

I'm glad I didn't have to climb them each day to get to school! Especially in winter when they were covered in snow and ice. You can see the green roof of the High School tower up above the trees.


Today the old High School has been converted into luxury condos.

Several years ago I went to Galena on a weekend when they were holding a house tour. This house was one of my favorites. It is called the Osprey Nest, and is just a small little house that is three stories high built on the side of the hill. You enter from one street and go downstairs to exit onto the street below!

All the house around town are quite picture worthy.

When the kids were there they stayed at the Jail House Inn in the old building that used to be the County Jail. I'll have photos to share from there soon!

hive-14396 houses galena steps photos archon pob cyp alive cent
0
0
0.000
23 comments
avatar

pixresteemer_incognito_angel_mini.png
Bang, I did it again... I just rehived your post!
Week 172 of my contest just started...you can now check the winners of the previous week!
4

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Congratulations @melinda010100! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)

You published more than 2900 posts.
Your next target is to reach 3000 posts.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

To support your work, I also upvoted your post!

Check out our last posts:

Our Hive Power Delegations to the August PUM Winners
Feedback from the September Hive Power Up Day
Hive Power Up Month Challenge - August 2023 Winners List
0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Beautiful images.
The majestic buildings invite you to travel in history. The houses are beautiful. How I would love to live in one like that. I think they would be places to inspire me to write my stories.
I felt something wonderful reading your post with such impeccable images.
I hope someday I will have the dream of visiting the United States and even living there.
Greetings from Caracas.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Keep learning English and I'll keep working on Spanish so that we can talk to each other when you come! 😊

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

I myself am very fond of visiting the old time villages because their maps are old, strong and very beautiful.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

It is fun to see the history and imagine how previous generations lived.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

That's really great. Good to know about it.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

That's interesting
I wonder why a high school will have a tower
That's amazing!

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar
(Edited)

I would imagine that there must have been some rather interesting characters, who would frequented the grand ballroom of the Felt House in its day.. sooo fascinating.

Wow.. that staircase is wild! Imagine doing that everyday haha. Sounds like you had an awesome tradition lmao.

All the photos were awesome. Thanks my friend for the backstory as well.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

I like those old buildings. Here they wouldn't be considered so historic and might not even have been preserved. That's because the city where I live was founded 2000 years ago.
Now heritage of interest such as these buildings are protected, but in the last century real architectural gems were demolished.
Looking forward to the next part. ❤️🤗
!LUV

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

We do have a different historical perspective in this country! We mark time by hundreds of years, Not thousands like you do there.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Yes, these big differences are exciting and what I like to discover the most. Everything is relative!

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Fun shots of an old midwest river town. I just drove to Kansas and back. Its a lovely country. I like Indiana and Illinois because of the beautiful farm country. You can see the great lakes in northern NY and Pennsylvania. Even Kansas looked good as we left - lovely sunrise over the prairie, sunflowers in the ditches, calves bugging mom for some milk. There alot of this wonderful country between the two coasts.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

That is a beauty, I was enchanted with the stone stairs from the year 1860, it is a beauty.

The way the houses are made makes me think of a fairy tale. I immediately imagine a young melinda running around and joking on those stone stairs.

I will be very careful when you publish the prison, that seems so interesting and beautiful to me, my friend.

You just made me travel back in time several decades, wow!

Thanks, it's a beauty!

0
0
0.000
Reply