continue tour:
            Lockport Area

A Quarrying Town
Digging the I&M Canal with pick and shovel became impossible near Lemont – dolomite limestone was too close to the surface. The workers risked their lives when they blasted through with black powder, and quarried with drills and chisels.



You can still see this yellow stone in Lemont’s canal walls, its downtown commercial buildings and neighborhood churches. Tons of stone were shipped by canal to Chicago – its famous Water Tower is a surviving example. Thousands of immigrants worked in Lemont’s quarries. Note the mural celebrating quarry workers on Stephen Street, which was originally painted for the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976 and recently restored as part of Lemont’s downtown revitalization program.

More about Quarrying

A Second Canal
In the 1890s, Lemont became home to many of the 7,000 workers who dug the Sanitary and Ship canal, designed to carry Chicago’s waste away from Lake Michigan. Many workers let off steam in Lemont’s “Smokey Row” along Stephen Street, a notorious red light district that catered to men working on the Sanitary & Ship Canal, as well as the I&M, quarries and railroad.

Park downtown on the street or adjacent to the I&M Canal to shop, dine, enjoy Lemont’s architecture or walk or bike its five-mile canal trail segment. Learn more about Lemont at the Historical Society, 306 Lemont Street, located in the Old Stone Church.