Maeystown, where three streams descend the bluff, was founded by Jacob Maeys in 1852.  The original settlers were German immigrants predominately from the former Bavarian Rheinpfalz.  The village is unique in manner with structures integrated into the landscape.  The original stone church, built in 1865-67, held services intermittently in German until 1943.  Sixty significant buildings still exist, including Maeys’ log house, the original church, the stone bridge entry into town, Zeitinger’s Mill, and various outbuildings, barns, and smokehouses made of limestone, brick, and wood.  These buildings, built in the mid to late 1800’s, form this quaint little village.

Because of its outbuildings, stone walls, flagstone gutters, structures built into the landscape, and common nationality, Maeystown in its entirety was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 — one of only a few villages in the State of Illinois to be so honored.

Maeystown is truly one of the hidden treasures of the Midwest.  In its description of Maeystown, the St. Louis Riverfront Times stated, “…the most impressive work of art is the village itself, a warren of narrow lanes and nineteenth-century storefronts surrounded by green hills.  Visitors approach the pocket-size town on an arched stone bridge so weathered you’ll expect to find trolls living underneath it.  Maeystown’s natural and man-made vistas go beyond mere ‘quaint’ or ‘picturesque’ into the realm of the truly beautiful.”