Bishop Hill State Historic Site

Bishop Hill State Historic Site was the site of a utopian religious community founded in 1846 by Swedish pietist Eric Janson in Bishop Hill, Illinois. The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency operates four surviving buildings in the village as a state historic site located within the Bishop Hill Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1984.

Visitors can enter the 1848 Colony Church (1848), part of which was once used as single-room apartments by colony residents and which features a museum about Bishop Hill's history and reproductions of Colony artifacts, the 1850s Colony Hotel, the 1850 Boys Dormitory, and the mid-1850s Colony barn.

The state also owns the village park with a gazebo and memorials to the town’s early settlers and Civil War soldiers.

A museum building houses a collection of paintings by colonist and folk artist Olof Krans.

External links

Wikinews has related news: Illinois budget cuts to close historic sites and parks

Coordinates: 41°12′01″N 90°07′08″W / 41.2003°N 90.1189°W