Art Deco is the design style highly popular starting in the 1920’s extending up to WW II. It is characterized by very clean lines, often rectangular but with highly stylized clean ornaments. Later examples also introduced very streamlined aspects. This style that originated in France was used extensively in architecture, fashion, automobiles, and household objects and decorations. The Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building in NYC are two of the most well-known examples.
Art Deco buildings, even today, exude a modern and sophisticated feeling. Almost all other building styles (except modern) were backward-looking. Art Deco produced a very optimistic view of the future.
Macon County Courthouse
Decatur, Illinois
Visited: January 5, 2021
Erected: 1939
Architect: Aschauer & Waggoner and Charles Harris
The Macon County Courthouse is an excellent example of art deco civic architecture. It is a seven story limestone and concrete building located in downtown Decatur. It has a central five-story block with two forward projecting wings, a one story projection at the sides, and two recessed floors on top.
The main entrance is into the second floor with a very appealing stepped door frame. The windows in the center section create striking vertical bands. A handsome minimalist clock is on the top floor.
The building was a project of the Federal WPA.
Decatur is typical of once prosperous Illinois industrial cities that have fallen on harder times. Very little retail remains viable downtown; there’s the usual assortment of bars and nightspots distributed around the downtown area. ADM has been for generations the main industry of Decatur. They are still present, certainly, but employ a much smaller workforce.
My 7th grade geography teacher, Miss Gass, went to college at a Millikin University and spoke often of the overpowering smell of soybean processing. I gather that is still true, but I didn’t notice any particular smell during our visit.
Macon County is named for Nathaniel Macon, a congressman from North Carolina.
Jefferson County Courthouse
Mt. Vernon, Illinois
Visited: September 21, 2020
Erected: 1941
Architect: William R McCoy
Jefferson County also has an excellent exemplar of art deco architecture. It is composed of grey stone in the form of several stacked and recessed boxes.
The front entrance is in three parts, the door in the center, flanked by large windows on either side on the first and second floors. Here the clock is uncharacteristically low, being immediately above the first floor entry.
The building is approached by a grand staircase. While it is an attractive (though handicap-unfriendly) feature, I can guess that there must have been some incidents of people misnavigating the stairs, as the bottom most section of the stairs are painted bright yellow. I suppose this might capture the attention of pedestrians, but it is quite a blot on the overall visual impression.
Like the building in Decatur, this was built by the WPA.
The exterior of the building is quite stained with pollution. The overall impact would be greatly enhanced by a good cleaning.
I don’t know what was going on in Mt Vernon, but this was unquestionably the busiest Courthouse we encountered anywhere.
Jefferson County is named for President Thomas Jefferson.
Bureau County Courthouse
Princeton, Illinois
Visited: February 21, 2021
Erected: 1937
Architects: Royer and Darnley
Full disclosure: Princeton is one of my favorite towns in Illinois, so I was mightily tempted to rank this building as #1 in this category on the basis of that alone.
It is also a fine example of the art deco style, but smaller and simpler than some other examples. The two story entrance is especially fine, with strongly patterned marble surrounding the recessed entrance.
The courthouse sits facing east in a wonderful square that is bisected by the main north and south highway through town. In the half of the park opposite is a truly wonderful Soldiers and Sailors monument. The large park is surrounded by graceful mansions, picturesque churches (one turned into an arts center), the historical museum, and the old Carnegie Library building. Go either direction on Park Ave and you will encounter a number of grand homes. The courthouse park clearly was in the original center of town.
Sometime later when the railroad came through, it passed a mile north and so a second business district developed near the train station (which is served by Amtrak). Princeton retains a vintage operating movie theater, the Apollo, and also a live professional summer theater operation, Festival 56.
I think I would happily live in Princeton.
Bureau County was named after Pierre de Bureau, a French trader.
Hamilton County Courthouse
McLeansboro, Illinois
Visited: September 21, 2021
Erected: 1939
Architect: William R McCoy
The Hamilton County Courthouse sits on an exceptionally large square in the center of McLeansboro. It is a two story building built primarily of golden tan bricks with significant concrete trim. Art Deco seems to be rendered in brick relatively rarely, as the necessary busy-ness of the mortar works against the sleek, smooth effect usually achieved.
On all four sides, a slightly protruding entrance section features a soaring two-story portal. The facade is otherwise marked by vertical brick ridges.
I regret to realize that we were in a big hurry at this moment in our explorations so I didn’t really notice anything much about McLeansboro to report.
Hamilton County is named for Alexander Hamilton.
Gallatin County Courthouse
Shawneetown, Illinois
Visited: September 19, 2020
Erected: 1939
Architect: Housing Authority of Gallatin County
I could beat around the bush and soften this assessment, but this Courthouse is truly a wreck. Original Shawneetown is one of the oldest towns in Illinois and was built right on the banks of the Ohio River. In 1937, a catastrophic flood occurred that basically destroyed Shawneetown, so the town was abandoned and rebuilt a few miles in on higher ground.
This courthouse was built as part of that effort. The city planners certainly had grand plans for their new city. There is an enormous open park area that goes on for seven or eight blocks with some scattered houses and businesses flanking it in a slipshod sort of way. At the end of this expanse sits the courthouse facing down this long open space. Perhaps this would have been beautiful in a place like Paris, and with a better building, but it just looks ridiculous in Shawneetown.
I don’t know which is more off-putting—the setting or the building. It is possible that this building looked nice at some point, but those days are long gone. It is constructed of brick and had an ok art deco profile, but at some point a squat “lid” of aluminum siding got installed around the roofline. It looks so shabby.
Further, it has three bays in front with a door in the middle and what might have been striking windows at some time. But apparently the building does not have air conditioning as there are two aged and battered window units mounted awkwardly on the front of the building. It looks terribly ramshackle; it might have been somewhat better before these “improvements” but it's hard to say.
Gallatin County is one of the state’s poorest areas. In early days, a prominent industry was mining salt, for which permission was granted to import slaves from Lentucky to work the salt mines. I do want to go back, in spite of how horrible this building is from the outside to see some reportedly interesting murals depicting early days of Gallatin County (including the enslaved salt mine workers) that are on the walls of the courtroom.
Meanwhile, the original Shawneetown was not entirely abandoned. It exists still as a ghost town of sorts called Old Shawneetown. It just might be the creepiest place in Illinois. Eighty years after the flood, there are still readily apparent signs of destruction and abandonment. There are a couple taverns and striking eighteenth century bank building owned by the State Historic Preservation Board, but in many years of passing through, I have yet to ever find it open to visitors.
Gallatin County was named for Albert Gallatin, financier and Congressman from Pennsylvania.
(By all rights, this ought to be rated "1 flag," but I don't have an appropriate graphic loaded and I don't have the capability of making one right now.)
Next up: Greek Revival Courthouses
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