The Monticello Courthouse Square Historic District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

in downtown

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. The district includes the historic commercial center of the city, the county seat of

Piatt County Piatt County is a county in Illinois. According to the 2020 United States census, it had a population of 16,673. Its county seat is Monticello. Piatt County is part of the Champaign-Urbana Metropolitan Area. History The first settler was G ...

, and is centered on the Piatt County Courthouse. 80 buildings are included in the district, 73 of which are considered contributing to its historic character. The district was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on November 5, 2009.

History

Monticello was founded in 1837 as a commercial center for the future Piatt County, which was considered too far from Decatur to reasonably conduct trade there. The original town plat covers all but four blocks of the historic district, with the remainder coming from one of the city's first additions. When Piatt County was formed in 1841, Monticello was named the county seat, and its population and development both increased in the ensuing years. Merchant J.C. Johnson built the city's first brick building at 204-206 West Washington Street in 1856; the building is the oldest surviving structure in the district. In the same year, Monticello gained its own newspaper, the ''Monticello Times'', and the county built a new courthouse. Development accelerated further after the

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the Central United States. Its primary routes connected Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, and thus, ...

and Chicago and Paducah Railroad began service to Monticello in the 1870s. The city received a major civic development in 1897, when the Town Hall and Opera House and the Allerton Library both opened in a new building. The third county courthouse, which still serves as the seat of county government, was built in 1903-04; by this point, the courthouse square had become the established center of local commerce.

Architecture

The Piatt County Courthouse, the focal point of the district, is a

Classical Revival Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassic ...

building designed by Urbana architect Joseph W. Royer. The three-story building is built with red brick and features

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

decorations. Each side of the building features an entrance

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings; * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

. On the north and south sides, the pavilions are divided by Ionic

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s topped by a

belt course A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the ...

; the east and west pavilions are projecting and have two pilasters each. Triangular

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

s with

dentil A dentil (from Lat. ''dens'', a tooth) is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice. Dentils are found in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and also in later styles such as Neoclassical, Federal, Georgian Rev ...

lated

cornices In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

top these two facades, and a

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

encircles the roof of the building. The courthouse's corners, including those on the projecting pavilions, feature limestone

quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

s. The

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

style is most prevalent among the district's commercial buildings, as 25 buildings feature the style. The prevalence of the style is a reflection of the district's growth in the late 19th century, the peak of the style's popularity in America. Several of the Italianate buildings feature

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

storefronts, a popular decorative feature for commercial buildings at the time. The district also features eighteen vernacular interpretations of the

Commercial Style The Chicago School refers to two architectural styles derived from the architecture of Chicago. In the architectural history, history of architecture, the first Chicago School was a school (discipline), school of architects active in Chicago in t ...

. The

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

style makes a prominent appearance in the town hall and library building, which features a stone arched entrance and contrasting brickwork and stonework. Other styles featured in the district include the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

style in the First Presbyterian Church; the

Stick Style The Stick style was a late-19th-century American architectural style, transitional between the Carpenter Gothic style of the mid-19th century, and the Queen Anne style that it had evolved into by the 1890s. It is named after its use of linear " ...

in the Wabash Depot; the

Dutch Colonial Revival Dutch Colonial is a style of domestic architecture, primarily characterized by gambrel roofs having curved eaves along the length of the house. Modern versions built in the early 20th century are more accurately referred to as "Dutch Colonial Re ...

style in two houses; and the

Streamline Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by Aerodynamics, aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In indu ...

style in the Country Charm Dairy Bar.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Italianate architecture in Illinois Neoclassical architecture in Illinois Buildings and structures in Piatt County, Illinois Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois National Register of Historic Places in Piatt County, Illinois Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois