West End Historic District

West of downtown Decatur, Illinois, this residential district spans gently rolling streets between Fairview Park on the north and Kiwanis Park on the south. It holds 1,707 contributing buildings and outbuildings plus 73 brick and river-cobble street piers, most built between about 1900 and 1952. Period revival styles dominate, followed by Craftsman and Bungalow houses, with Queen Anne, Prairie, Colonial Revival, English Revival and International examples also present. Only a school, the Late Gothic Revival Westminster Presbyterian Church and one small commercial building break the residential character. Montgomery Place, with its curving streets and large lots, was among Decatur's first such subdivisions. Brick and concrete streets, curbs, sidewalks and mature trees add to the setting. The district was listed because it shows how automobile-era growth and planned suburban development carried the industrial city westward, offering newer housing to its expanding middle and upper classes, many connected with local manufacturing.