Belvidere North State Street Historic District

North State Street in Belvidere, Illinois, runs from Hurlbut Street south to the Kishwaukee River. It holds a district of 41 properties, 32 of them contributing. Most are attached one- to three-story brick commercial buildings dating from about 1850 to 1955. The oldest is a three-story building from about 1850, and a granite marker commemorates the 1842 American House hotel. Many buildings are Italianate or early 20th-century Commercial Style, and most are plainly designed, with less ornament than the commercial area south of the river. Gaps in the street wall mostly come from service stations built before 1949. State Street was part of the Illinois State Road linking Chicago and Galena and later carried Federal Highway 20. The district was listed because it records Belvidere's founding, when westward travel from Chicago was increasing, and its commercial growth through 1962. Non-contributing buildings have lost character-defining features through later alterations.