Lockport is a city in Will County, Illinois that incorporated in 1853. Lockport is located in northeastern Illinois, 30 miles southwest of Chicago, and north of Joliet, at locks connecting Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal with the Des Plaines River via the Lockport Powerhouse. It also has locks of the old Illinois and Michigan Canal.
Lockport has a station on Metra's Heritage Corridor, which provides daily rail service between Joliet, Illinois and Chicago, Illinois (at Union Station).
This northern Illinois locale was established in 1830 and is home to approximately 20,000 residents. Steeped in the rich canal heritage of the 1800's, Lockport is a delightful mix of quaint history and modern charm.
Lockport's rich canal heritage of the 1800's can be re-discovered with a stroll amidst the native stone warehouses along the canal, in the first lock built on this important waterway (left), and in shadows cast by a setting sun on Lockport's unique architecture.
The City of Lockport is one of the best preserved canal sites in existence today.
Commerce made the canal a fascinating scene at Lockport . . . flour mills and grain warehouses, lake boats and stone barges, boatyards and canal offices. Images of bygone eras fill your senses as you experience the sights and sounds of Lockport's downtown area.
Lockport lies quietly nestled in the Des Plaines River Valley. Here the Miami and the Potawatomi Indians portaged the Des Plaines, and explorers Joliet and Marquette traversed these valleys scoured by glaciers.
You'll find sturdy stone houses and buildings of cream-colored dolomite limestone from nearby quarries. This same stone was sent by mule-towed barges to Chicago to build the historic Water Tower, as well as numerous churches and houses.
Downtown Lockport has a Historic District that is part of the 120-mile long Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor. The original length of the Corridor was 97 miles, however, the canal now extends to Lake Michigan. This Historic District is bounded by the canal, 7th Street, Washington Street, and 11th Street. It offers no less than 37 historic sites and structures to discover.
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