West Walnut Street Historic District

This 18-acre neighborhood in Carbondale, Illinois, gathers 54 houses along West Walnut Street and nearby stretches of Main, Maple, Poplar and Springer Streets, with 48 dating from 1859 to 1929. Laid out in the 1850s from an oak grove, the area saw little building until the 1870s, and many original oaks remain. In the 19th century Walnut and Main were considered the city's most prestigious residential streets. The district holds the city's only surviving pioneer style house, built in 1859 for William Dixon, and its only mansard-roofed house, enlarged by Robert Allyn, first president of Southern Illinois Normal University. It also includes square Italianate houses, Queen Anne frame houses, the city's finest Colonial Revival house, built in 1900 for historian George Washington Smith, and substantial early 20th century brick homes. The nomination presents it as the only major residential area in Carbondale that keeps its turn-of-the-century character.