{"nrhp_refnum":"78001167","name":"Upper Alton Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Seminary St., College, Leverett, and Evergreen Aves.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Alton","county":"Madison County","state":"IL","lat":38.90482515350004,"lon":-90.14296061243212,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-05-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 52-acre historic district in Upper Alton, part of Alton, Madison County, Illinois, centered on the former Shurtleff College and Western Military Academy campuses and adjacent residential streets, with buildings dating from 1832 onward.","why_significant":"Its primary significance is the former Shurtleff College campus, successor to Rock Spring Seminary, Illinois' first institution of higher learning. The campus buildings document the institution's history from 1832 to 1940, and nearby homes belonged to men tied to the school. The ensemble has changed little and preserves the feel of a late 19th-century college town.","narrative":"Upper Alton Historic District covers about 52 acres on high ground northeast of downtown Alton, Illinois. It is built around the former Shurtleff College and Western Military Academy campuses and the streets next to them, including Seminary, College, Leverett and Evergreen. Of 66 structures, 31 were judged architecturally or historically significant. The oldest is Academic Hall, now Loomis Hall, built in 1832 in a simplified Greek Revival style. Shurtleff College descended from Rock Spring Seminary, founded in 1827 as the first institution of higher learning in Illinois, and moved to Upper Alton in the early 1830s. Its buildings run from 1832 to a 1940 administration building by William B. Ittner. The district also holds the homes of faculty and presidents, an 1835 iron fence from the Bostwick estate, and Western Military Academy buildings in Tudor Revival style. With large grounds and few through streets, the area has a park-like character and has kept the feel of a late 19th-century college town.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"William B. Ittner (Administration Building, 1940); Leo Kleinschnittger, contractor (N. Rogers Farley Sr. House, 1932)","architectural_style":"Greek Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, Classical Revival, Georgian Revival, Tudor Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Land use is about equally divided between residential and educational; the Western Military Academy closed in 1971 and Shurtleff College closed in 1957, with its campus now part of Southern Illinois University.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.867469-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/54/8935/28893554/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/78001167.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78001167/26a04508d0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78001167/26a04508d0-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Evergreen_north_of_College,_Alton.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Evergreen_north_of_College,_Alton.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893554","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Alton_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16902379"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/madison-county/upper-alton-historic-district-78001167/"}