Belleville Historical Society

Help Save a Piece of Belleville Township Stadium

The four BTHS pillars stand nine feet tall at the entrances to the Old Township Stadium in Belleville.

For decades four Art Deco pillars, each nine feet tall and impressed with the circular BTHS icon of Belleville Township High School, met fans and players at the gates of Belleville’s old Township Stadium. But in the spring of 2012, most of the historic stadium was demolished to make way for construction of a new facility.

Fortunately, with cooperation from Lindenwood University and generous donations of time and equipment, the Historical Society was able to salvage the four BTHS pillars as tributes to the original stadium. Our goal is to give them to Belleville East and Belleville West High Schools, which both used the stadium for decades.

Now we need just $2,500 more to pay for the safe removal and transport of the BTHS pillars.

Whether you wear maroon or blue, are a former player or a forever fan, we hope you will help us preserve this piece of Belleville Township Stadium’s history for generations to come. Please donate now and share this page with anyone interested in preserving the stadium’s history. From donations of $5 to $500, every little bit will help!

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Or mail donations to:

Belleville Historical Society
Post Office Box 23682
Belleville, IL 62223

To receive a receipt of payment with our tax ID, please include your contact information with your donation. The Belleville Historical Society is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization. Donations may be tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.

About Belleville Township Stadium

Belleville Township Stadium was constructed in the 1930s as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project to provide jobs for residents of Belleville and a football stadium for Belleville Township High School. Construction of the Art Deco stadium was completed in 1940. The stadium stands at the site of Lindenwood University’s Belleville Campus, and the former site of Belleville Township and Belleville West High Schools, at 2600 West Main Street in Belleville, Illinois.

When Belleville Township High School was divided into two campuses in 1966, the stadium continued to serve as the home football field for both Belleville West, located at the original campus, and Belleville East High Schools. In 2002 Belleville West moved to its new location at the corner of Route 15 and Frank Scott Parkway West, and Lindenwood University took ownership of the former high school campus the next year.

As part of its growth and many improvements to the campus, Lindenwood University is tearing out most of the Township Stadium and replacing it with a new facility for football and lacrosse. The University has been very generous to cooperate with the Historical Society and District 201 as we try to preserve the most iconic pieces of the stadium, the four nine-foot pillars that would greet Belleville East and West students and fans at the entrance to the stadium for more than 60 years.

More about the stadium:


Any use of these photos should be credited to the Belleville Historical Society and include a link to bellevillehistoricalsociety.org. If you would like a print copy of a photo, please send an email request to bellevillehistoricalsociety@gmail.com.

Updated 7/2/2012