What to See in Ottawa - Top Sights and Attractions

The Ottawa East Side Historic District is a residential historic district in eastern Ottawa, Illinois. The district is located on a peninsula formed by the confluence of the Fox River and Illinois River and is only connected to the rest of Ottawa by a single bridge. The area's relative isolation caused the city's businesses and industries to avoid building there, and as a result the district became almost entirely residential. Construction in the East Side began in 1848, when developer Henry Green built his home there, and continued rapidly through the 19th century; after a brief slowdown at the turn of the century, development continued in the 1910s and 1920s before stopping almost entirely during the Great Depression. The neighborhood was one of the most desirable in the city, and Ottawa's upper class built many large homes there; however, it also includes several smaller middle-class houses. The Greek Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne styles are all well-represented in the district's larger and more formal homes, while many vernacular styles can be seen in the smaller homes.

The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 18, 2013.^[1]

The Ottawa Commercial Historic District is a historic district in downtown Ottawa, Illinois. The district includes 195 buildings and structures, most of them commercial buildings, spread out over 26 city blocks. The oldest buildings in the district, located near the Illinois and Fox rivers, were built in the 1830s. The district expanded northward toward the Illinois & Michigan Canal over time, and the buildings in its northern half date to the mid-to-late 19th and early 20th centuries. The district's buildings include most popular Midwestern architectural styles from the mid-19th century through the mid-20th century; some of the most common are vernacular frame buildings from the early years of the district's growth, Italianate buildings from the mid-19th century, Commercial style buildings from the early 20th century, and International Style buildings from the mid-20th century.

The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 22, 2011. Two sites within the district, the Washington Park Historic District and the Knuessl Building, are independently listed on the National Register.^[3]