Macon County Courthouse (Illinois)

Last updated February 11, 2019

The Macon County Courthouse is a government building in Decatur, the county seat of Macon County, Illinois, United States. Completed in 1940, it is the fourth courthouse in the county's history.

Decatur, Illinois City in Illinois, United States

Decatur is the largest city and the county seat of Macon County in the U.S. state of Illinois, with a population of 76,122 as of the 2010 Census. The city was founded in 1829 and is situated along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Central Illinois. In 2017, the city's estimated population was 72,174.

A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is used in Canada, China, Romania, Taiwan and the United States. County towns have a similar function in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, and historically in Jamaica.

Macon County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 United States Census, it had a population of 110,768. Its county seat is Decatur.

Early history

The area now composing Macon County was uninhabited until about 1820, when a Vandalia resident settled along the Sangamon River,^[1]^:26 and further settlement was extremely sparse until 1828.^[1]^:27 As the area's population began growing, the General Assembly created Macon County out of Shelby County in early 1829,^[1]^:3 and a commission named to ascertain a location for the county seat chose the location that became the city of Decatur. Land sales in the newly platted town began in July,^[1]^:23 and the first court in the county met in August at the home of James Ward,^[1]^:47 about 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Decatur.^[1]^:48

Vandalia is a city in Fayette County, Illinois, United States. At the 2010 Census, the population was 7,042. Vandalia is 69 miles (111 km) northeast of St. Louis, on the Kaskaskia River. It served as the state capital of Illinois from 1819 until 1839, when the seat of state government moved to the current capital of Springfield. Vandalia was for years the western terminus of the National Road.

Sangamon River watercourse in the United States of America

The Sangamon River is a principal tributary of the Illinois River, approximately 246 miles (396 km) long, in central Illinois in the United States. It drains a mostly rural agricultural area between Peoria and Springfield. The river is associated with the early career of Abraham Lincoln and played an important role in the early white settlement of Illinois, when the area around was known as the "Sangamon River Country". The section of the Sangamon River that flows through Robert Allerton Park near Monticello was named a National Natural Landmark in 1971.

The Illinois General Assembly (IGA) is the bicameral legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois and comprises the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in 1818. The State Senate has 59 members while the House has 118 members, all elected from single-member districts. A Senate district is formed by combining two adjacent House districts. The current General Assembly is Illinois's 100th. The General Assembly meets in the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois. Its session laws are generally adopted by majority vote in both houses, and upon gaining the assent of the Governor of Illinois. They are published in the official Laws of Illinois.

First courthouse

When the county was formed, a rude log building was soon erected to serve as the first courthouse. Measuring 18 by 24 by 20 feet (5.5 m × 7.3 m × 6.1 m),^[2] it was used as a courthouse during the week, and it was available for churches to use on weekends.^[1]^:179 Having outgrown the building, county officials ordered the construction of a two-story brick building 40 by 40 feet (12 m × 12 m) in 1837, and they sold the original to a farmer who moved it to his property. In the 1890s, the owner donated it to a local historical organization, and it has since been used as a museum.^[2]

Storey level part of a building that could be used by people

A storey or story is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people. The plurals are "storeys" and "stories", respectively.

Later courthouses

The second courthouse featured a hip roof with a cupola at the center, and a small bell tower sat atop the cupola. Five rectangular windows and a rounded door pierced each of the sides. It remained in use until 1891, when a replacement was completed. The new limestone building featured a corner tower and exhibited the Romanesque Revival style, and it was used both by the city and the county. This arrangement continued until 1940, when the present Art Deco building was completed by the federal Works Progress Administration. Five stories tall with an irregular plan, it is entered by a central second-story set of doors. A minimalist public clock is perched above the main entrance, immediately below the edge of the roof.^[2]

A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus a hipped roof house has no gables or other vertical sides to the roof.

In architecture, a cupola is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome.

Bell tower a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells

A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell towers, often part of a municipal building, an educational establishment, or a tower built specifically to house a carillon. Church bell towers often incorporate clocks, and secular towers usually do, as a public service.

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References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Smith, John W. History of Macon County, Illinois : from its organization to 1876. Springfield: Rokker's, 1876.
1 2 3 Weiser, Dennis. Illinois courthouses: an illustrated history. Virginia Beach: Donning, 2009, 91.

External links

Macon County

Coordinates: 39°50′24″N88°57′14″W / 39.84000°N 88.95389°W / 39.84000; -88.95389

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

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[history-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Smith, John W. History of Macon County, Illinois : from its organization to 1876. Springfield: Rokker's, 1876.

[weiser-2] 1 2 3 Weiser, Dennis. Illinois courthouses: an illustrated history. Virginia Beach: Donning, 2009, 91.