Elsah, IL

Elsah is a Jersey County village on the Mississippi River, part of Metro East and the St. Louis metropolitan area. Its stone streets and houses grew from a riverfront community founded in 1853, with LaSalle Street's commercial buildings and Mill Street's residential blocks preserving the village's older scale. The Great River Road, Illinois Route 100, now runs through the village, and the Sam Vadalabene Bike Trail gives cyclists a way into the same river corridor.

ATTRstannate from St. Louis, MO, US / CC BY 2.0

Principia College changed Elsah's story in the 1930s, when the Christian Science liberal-arts college moved its campus from St. Louis to the hills above town. Bernard Maybeck's campus became a National Historic Landmark district in 1993, while the village itself joined the National Register in 1973. The Village of Elsah Museum occupies the 1887 village hall, and Farley Music Hall remains a community gathering place. Elsah is a river village where stone architecture, a college campus, roads, trails, and eagle-viewing along the Mississippi all sit close together.