Cairo Historic District - Cairo, IL - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

County of district: Alexander County
Location of district: Roughly bounded by Park, 33rd, Sycamore, 21st, Cedar, and 4th Sts., and the Ohio River , Cairo

The City of Cairo (1970 population 6,277), seat of Alexander County, lies on a narrow deltaic peninsula at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in the southernmost extremity of Illinois. The area is part of the Gulf Embayment, which at Cairo takes the form of an alluvial flood plain, and which was once heavily wooded. The site of the city itself is of very recent geologic origin, formed most probably by a slow southward movement of the junction of the tow rivers. Lying thus in a vulnerable flood plain and having two major rivers to content with, Cairo -- or at least the built up part of Cairo -- is completely surrounded by levees and often gives the impression of being a walled city, especially when approached from the north.

"The Cairo Historic District includes most of the city between 33rd, Sycamore, Division, Park, Cedar and 4th streets and the Ohio River. Though the actual boundary was determined on the basis of visual cohesion and the values of the cityscape as a visual reminder of the city's important past, comparisons with maps showing the build-up area as of 1890 reveals close correspondence between that area and the Historic District. The two major exceptions are the area east of Sycamore between 30th and 21st streets, now virtually dilapidated and partially redeveloped, and that generally west of Walnut Street between 12th and 19th streets, once the black quarter of the city but now almost totally abandoned or rehabilitated via housing developments. Both of these areas have been excluded. Though much of Cairo south of 19th east of Commercial is also now vacant and some of the land has been unsympathetically redeveloped, this area has been included in the historic district since Cairo was -- and is -- a rivertown and this is the only area where a relatively strong tie to the river still exists. Since north of 33rd and/or 30th streets the streetscape is conditioned by more recent structures of minimal merits and south of about 4th Street the built-up area ends, these serve as the short northern and southern boundaries. The boundary at 29th and Washington reflects the loss of two stately homes and their recent replacement with several undistinguished houses, while that in the vicinity of Park & Holbrook is occasioned by a high incidence of minor structures dating from the 1920's." ~ NRHP Nomination Form