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   Joliet Area | Lemont

The Public Landing
To tour historic downtown Lockport, park in one of the lots west of State Street off 8th or 9th streets (Route 7) at the ends of the I&M Canal Public Landing.

The landing was once a bustling place where wagons loaded with grain met canal boats. Don’t miss the restored local limestone warehouses at either end of the landing. The Norton Building houses a branch site of the Illinois State Museum. The Gaylord Building, a National Trust Historic Site, features exhibits and programs in partnership with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Stop here for visitor information and fine dining.



On State Street, note the historic storefronts and canal town architecture. At 8th and State, the white frame I&M Canal Museum was built in 1837 as the I&M Canal Commission headquarters.

Architecture
Quarry workers pried yellow dolomite limestone from quarries in Lockport, Lemont and Joliet, and Lockport’s builders used the stone to construct the Gaylord and Norton Buildings, other commercial structures, homes and churches.

More about quarrying

Lockport’s merchants moved the heart of downtown one block from the canal to State Street after the railroads paralleled the canal. In 1895, much of downtown burned in a huge fire, and most of the handsome buildings on State Street today date from rebuilding immediately after the fire.

Historic structures reused
The old Congregational Church at 9th and Washington Streets was built of local stone in 1840, eight years before the I&M Canal opened. It now houses the Gladys Fox Museum and serves as a community center. Another example of adaptive reuse in Lockport is the Romanesque Revival style Central Square Building, a few blocks west of State Street on Hamilton between 8th and 9th Streets. Built as a public school in 1896, the building is now Lockport’s City Hall. The gray Bedford Indiana limestone used in this building replaced local stone for most buildings after the 1890s because it was easier to quarry, more durable and less expensive.