Cahokia Heights is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. It was founded on May 6, 2021, by the merger of the villages of Cahokia and Alorton and the city of Centreville.
Cahokia was a village in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. It was located east of the Mississippi River in the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, 15,241 people lived in the village, a decline from 16,391 in 2000. On May 6, 2021, the village ceased to exist, being incorporated into the new city of Cahokia Heights.[3]
The name refers to one of the clans of the historic Illini confederacy, who met early French explorers to the region. Early European settlers named the nearby (and long-abandoned) Cahokia Mounds in present-day Madison County after the Illini clan. But the UNESCO World Heritage Site and State Historic Park was developed by the Mississippian culture, active here from AD 900 to AD 1500. They created an extensive urban complex, the largest of the farflung Mississippian culture territory through the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys.
French Canadian colonists founded Cahokia village in 1696 as a Catholic mission. The historic Church of the Holy Family is the oldest continually active Catholic parish in the United States, as well as the oldest church west of the Allegheny Mountains. Other significant colonial and Federal-period buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places include the Cahokia Courthouse (c. 1740, in the French Colonial style); and the Jarrot Mansion (c. 1810).
Centreville was a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. The population was 5,309 in 2010, down from 5,951 at the 2000 census. On May 6, 2021, the city ceased to exist, being incorporated into the new city of Cahokia Heights.[3]
Alorton (formerly Alcoa) was a village in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. Incorporated in 1944,[3] it was one of three municipalities that merged to form the city of Cahokia Heights on May 6, 2021; the other two were the village of Cahokia and the city of Centreville.[4] Prior to merger, Alorton had a population of 1,566 and land area of 1.8 square miles (4.7 km2) in the 2020 Census.[5]
