Nauvoo Historic District

Nauvoo lies on a bend of the Mississippi River in Hancock County, Illinois. Mormon settlers bought land around the small town of Commerce in 1839 and renamed it Nauvoo. Within a few years the city reached an estimated 12,000 residents and was for a time the largest in Illinois. It served as church headquarters until the Mormons left in 1846. Surviving buildings include the Mansion House, Nauvoo House, the Joseph Smith Homestead, the Masonic Temple and several homes of church leaders, most of them plain brick houses of two or two and a half stories. The temple, burned in 1848 and later toppled by a tornado, was located through archaeological digs in the 1960s. After 1846 a French communal group, the Icarians, occupied the town and introduced wine and cheese making. Restoration groups have since worked to return parts of the town to its appearance around 1846.