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Lockport Historic District, Illinois & Michigan Canal, Lockport, Will County, IL

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Lockport Historic District, Illinois & Michigan Canal, Lockport, Will County, IL

description

Summary

Significance: The Village of Lockport, Illinois was platted by the Commissioners for the I&M Canal in 1836 at which time land between 8th and 10th Streets and Commerce Street and the Canal was set aside as a Public Landing area. HAER IL-16-A pertains to the canal, landing, and structures related to the canal. The canal served as a major means of communication and transportation for areas southwest of Chicago throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. Primary goods moved along the canal included grain and flour, and limestone from the quarries in the Des Plaines River Valley. Other products included timber shipped in from the north, and agricultural products such as sugar and coffee from the south. Passenger service was also important in the canal's early years, until it was superseded by the Railroads in the late 1850's. The canal's presence contributed to the growth of Lockport as a principal grain processing and commercial center. Water power to operate milling facilities and a paper factory was provided by a hydraulic basin situated on the west side of the canal in the vicinity of 13th Street. Commercial traffic on the canal decreased in the final decades of the nineteenth century, and ceased with the opening of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in 1900.
Survey number: HAER IL-16-A
Building/structure dates: 1848 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1872 Subsequent Work

date_range

Date

1900
person

Contributors

Historic American Engineering Record, creator
Gooding, William
Jandoli, Liz, transmitter
place

Location

Lockport (Ill.)41.58948, -88.05784
Google Map of 41.5894752, -88.05783699999999
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Source

Library of Congress
copyright

Copyright info

No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html

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