A (fairly brief) storm meant that we weren’t able to spend as much time at the Old Belleville Street Fair (or, “Alt Belleville Strassenfest,” if you will), as we had planned, but we did still go down and walk around. We missed a lot of the demonstrations, as well as the tours, but we still got to see a lot of cool stuff, most of which we had never noticed before!

I was really excited to see the Garfield Street Saloon. My understanding is that it will eventually be a museum dedicated to the beer brewing history (Hello Stag beer!), that is such an integral part of Belleville’s history, and that was already evident, from the displays inside, to the brewing demonstration outside:

Something you don’t often notice in old neighborhoods is that there is writing on some of the bricks on the brick streets…fascinating!

The old houses (and learning who lived and/or worked there), were the best part of the fair. As a bonus, many of them had demonstrations outside, such as carpenters, brick masons, and even musicians (I do love an accordion!):

There was even a secret passage!

Belleville is a wonderful city with a fascinating (and long!) history. I’m so glad that our city’s 200th birthday celebration has created events that help us learn and appreciate that history!