Belleville, Illinois

Everything Belleville is known for

1 song mention this city 6 artists from here

Music in Belleville

Songs About Belleville

Mr. Misunderstood
Eric Church
5%
"Jeff Tweedy is one bad mother"

Artists From Belleville

J
Jeff Tweedy
indie
U
Uncle Tupelo
americana
S
Son Volt
americana
J
Jay Farrar
indie
B
Brett Sheroky
country
J
Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker & Yim Yames
indie

Rivers & Roads in Song near Belleville

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Belleville.

Mississippi River 216 songs Interstate 44 5 songs U.S. Route 66 19 songs Missouri River 12 songs Illinois River 2 songs

Musical Heritage

Chuck Berry's Duck-Walk Statue RoadyGoat

2011

In the Delmar Loop at 6555 Delmar Boulevard stands an eight-foot bronze of Chuck Berry, guitar slung high, frozen mid duck-walk. Sculpted by Harry Weber and dedicated on July 29, 2011, it sits across the street from Blueberry Hill, the club where Berry — a St. Louis native — played a standing monthly gig for years, well into his eighties. Berry was the first artist inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and lyrics from his anthems are set into the granite plaza around the statue. He died in 2017 at age 90; a memorial gathering filled the Loop. (Note: the statue went up in 2011, while Berry was still alive and still playing the club a few doors down.)

19.7 mi away

History of Belleville

The City Bigger Than London, Emptied Before Columbus RoadyGoat

1050

Around 1050 AD, on the Mississippi floodplain across the river from modern St. Louis, a settlement exploded, almost overnight, into a planned city of perhaps 20,000 people. Bigger than London at the time. We call it Cahokia. It had grand plazas, distinct neighborhoods, and more than a hundred earthen mounds, raised basket by basket, by hand, with no wheel and no draft animals. The largest, Monks Mound, covers a wider footprint at its base than the Great Pyramid of Giza. There was even a Woodhenge, a ring of tall cedar posts aligned to the sun; on the spring equinox, from its center, the sun rose directly over Monks Mound. People poured in from across the Mississippi valley within a single generation, drawn by something nobody can name for certain, maybe a religious movement. Then it unwound. By 1350 it was empty, and no city in what became America would match its size again until Philadelphia, more than four centuries later. Not Europeans, not smallpox. Perhaps drought, perhaps the great river's floods returning, perhaps political collapse or lost faith, perhaps all at once. We still don't really know.

10.3 mi away

The Gateway Arch RoadyGoat

1963

The Gateway Arch rises 630 feet over the Mississippi riverfront in St. Louis, the centerpiece of Gateway Arch National Park. It is exactly as wide as it is tall, 630 feet each way, clad in stainless steel and shaped as a weighted catenary, the curve a hanging chain makes when flipped upside down. Designed by architect Eero Saarinen, it is the tallest monument in the United States and the tallest stainless steel monument in the world. Construction ran from February 1963 to October 28, 1965, when the final keystone section was set, at a cost of about thirteen million dollars. A tram system inside each leg carries visitors to an observation deck at the top. It commemorates the westward expansion of the nation and Thomas Jefferson's role in it.

13.0 mi away

Cahokia Mounds

600

UNESCO World Heritage Site preserving the largest pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico, which at its peak around 1100 AD had a population rivaling contemporary London.

10.3 mi away

Gateway Arch

1963

The 630-foot stainless steel catenary arch on the St. Louis riverfront, designed by Eero Saarinen, commemorates the city's role as the gateway to the West.

13.0 mi away

Old Courthouse - Dred Scott Case

1846

The St. Louis courthouse where Dred Scott first filed suit for his freedom in 1846, a case that reached the Supreme Court and helped trigger the Civil War.

13.3 mi away

Anheuser-Busch Brewery

1852

The historic St. Louis brewery campus where Adolphus Busch pioneered pasteurized beer, refrigerated railcars, and built America's largest brewing company.

13.4 mi away

Scott Joplin House State Historic Site

1900

The St. Louis apartment where Scott Joplin composed several of his ragtime masterpieces, including The Entertainer, during the height of the ragtime era.

14.6 mi away

Union Station

1894

Once the largest and busiest train station in the world, this Romanesque Revival masterpiece handled over 100,000 passengers daily at its peak.

14.1 mi away

Things to Do in Belleville

historical 13.0 mi away
Gateway Arch

630 feet of gleaming stainless steel. The tallest man-made monument in the US.
quirky 14.1 mi away
City Museum

A surreal playground for adults built from salvaged city infrastructure. Caves slides and a school bus hanging off the roof.
food 17.0 mi away
Ted Drewes Frozen Custard

St. Louis frozen custard so thick they serve it upside down since 1929.
quirky 10.7 mi away
World's Largest Catsup Bottle

A 170-foot water tower shaped like a Brooks ketchup bottle in Collinsville IL.

Everything Near Belleville

65 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Explore Belleville on the Map
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