Well, we've arrived at last at the final (and largest) stylistic group of courthouses: Modern Style. Because there are so many, I've broken this category into three completely arbitrary groupings (that I am knowingly labeling pretty haphazardly.)
- Generic, derivative, banal buildings. Perhaps these should be called Contemporary rather than Modern.
- Post-modern...modern, yet somehow trying to incorporate some more traditional aspects of familiar design but be modern
- Modernist--a term I'm using completely arbitrarily to indicate buildings that seem to be actually designed with a sense of impact and style.
I will end up with the "modernist" buildings as this set contains a large number of my favorite buildings we encountered.
So what are the characteristics of modern architecture? It's rather hard to be too specific, but mainly we're talking about post-1930 structures and in the set of Illinois courthouses is post 1950, which encompasses about 70 years. So unsurprisingly, there is a great deal of variation with this style.
But in general, modern architecture values function over ornamentation. So modern buildings have clean, precise lines and edges, concrete and glass are used frequently, any indication of hand-crafted features are minimized. Often there is a sense of asymmetry. Windows are often very large. But the most common element is lack of ornamentation.
So this first set of modern buildings share the characteristic of basically making no impact. They may be functional but don't seem to have any aspect of creative visual interest. Very frequently, we decided they most looked like elementary schools or student centers on a small liberal arts college campus. Almost all are utterly forgettable.
Alexander County Courthouse
Cairo, Illinois
Visited: September 18, 2020
Erected: 1965
Architects: Berger Kelly United and Associates
Honestly, I quite like this building. the right end has a massive windowless block marked by concrete or stone panels; the left end has a long, low brick extension with a small copper strip to mark the otherwise flat roof. The lettering on the facade is nicely stylish. There is a long brick planter stretching along the entire length of the brick section that would be quite attractive if planted.
The only criticism is that it doesn't evoke a feeling of authority or permanence that one expects in a courthouse. It looks most like a really nice elementary school. The gym/cafeteria/auditorium would be in the concrete windowless block with classrooms stretching down on either side of a long corridor. I can actually smell what the school should smell like, as it would be nearly the same age as the elementary school that I attended. But if one blocks those images, the building is really attractive.
Cairo gets a really bad rap for being derelict. And indeed, it has certainly fallen on hard times and has shrunk dramatically in population, leaving a lot of empty houses. And the business district is pretty much non-existent. But unlike a lot of other cities we visited that aren't called out in the way Cairo is, they have torn down a lot of derelict nineteenth century commercial buildings, and so while there are plenty of empty lots, I don't think the core of city speaks of decay quite as much as some other places in the state where buildings are just left to fall down.
We did have a wonderfully entertaining tour of Magnolia Manor, a very fancy historic home that remains open for tours.
Alexander County was named for William Alexander, an early settler in the district.
Wabash County Courthouse
Mount Carmel, Illinois
Visited: August 14, 2020
Erected: 1960
Architects: John L Hagel of Evansville, Indiana
It's a challenge to actually date this building. The current exterior has not been modified since 1963. But it is built from and around the 1880 courthouse which was never actually torn down, but basically remodeled into this completely different building.
The building is composed of two blocks, one extending right to the sidewalk, the other set back a little. The bricks are a pleasant mottled blend of beige and amber. the windows along the street are arranged in tall narrow columns; the windows on the recessed section are wider and less tall.
Again, I rather like the building but it doesn't evoke any official presence. It could be a professional building housing dentists and eye doctors, or it could be the headquarters of the phone company.
Wabash County is very small. It was formed by splitting Edwards County in half to avoid an armed insurrection when the county seat was moved to Albion (in Edwards County). Mount Carmel seemed like an ok small town. It sits right on the banks of the Wabash River.
Wabash County is named after the Wabash River, which is an Anglicized version of the French name for the river Ouabache which was taken from the Miami word meaning "pure white" as the river bottom is pure white limestone, although these days it is entirely buried in mud.
Saline County Courthouse
Harrisburg, Illinois
Viewed: September 21, 2020
Erected: 1969
Architects: Clark Altay and Associates
The Saline County Courthouse is built of mainly large solid brick masses with recessed sections of glass for the entryways. There's a broad stone band running around the entire edge of the flat roof. There's not much more that can be said about the exterior.
The courthouse sits on the central square of Harrisburg, no doubt where an older building stood. But here is a building that looks most like a Physical Education building for. small college. As such, it doesn't relate at all to the traditional commercial buildings that face it on all four sides. Like the building in Mt Vernon, the stair must e a problem which accounts for the being painted bright yellow, which only further diminishes any positive effect of this building.
It's somewhat telling that the Web page for Harrisburg chose to show a picture of the courthouse that was torn down in the 1960s rather than show the current building.
Up through the 1950s, Harrisburg was one of the biggest cities in Illinois, with a thriving and large commercial district. The prosperity as primarily due to rail access and the large deposits of high-sulphur coal mined in the region. The rail was removed and the coal mines mainly closed and so Harrisburg has been in a long, slow period of decline.
Saline County is named for the Saline Creek. Salt mining along the Saline Creeks were a major idustry in the early days of settlement.
Whiteside County Courthouse
Morrison, Illinois
Visited: July 19, 2020
Erected: 1986
Architects: Philips Swager Associates
This building is even less interesting than the building in Harrisburg. It is completely built of uniform red brick with large stripes of reflective glass. The only attention to any break of the facade is a very slight bowing out of the window above the entrance. I assume this is either a feature of the courtroom, or else it is a lobby into which the courtrooms open.
In any case, this looks just like a small college student center. It could be rated slightly superior to the Saline County building in that this building sits in a slightly park-like setting away from the old commercial district, so it doesn't look so much out of place.
Morrison was the site of considerable industry in the first part of the 20th Century, with significant refrigerator and school furniture manufacturing. Unfortunately, most of this has closed or moved to other locations.
Whiteside County is named for Samuel Whiteside, a soldier in the Black Hawk War.
Williamson County Courthouse
Marion, Illinois
Viewed: September 19, 2020
Erected: 1970
Architects: Clark, Atley, and Associates
The Williamson County Courthouse is constructed of light colored brick with some limited glass and concrete trim. The front is essentially without windows, which unfortunately leaves a large air conditioning unit on the central front as the only thing providing any decoration. The backside faces a parking lot and has somewhat more glass as it is facing north. Apparently the lack of windows was an effort to control energy usage by not bearing the south facing heat generated through glass. Unfortunately, the result is a really uninviting structure. It could be a pretty fancy prison, but looks disappointing as a courthouse.
The former courthouse, from 1888, sat on the central square of Marion. It was torn down, but its central cupola was saved and erected on a tall clock tower on the original courthouse site. It seems everyone sort of shares my lackluster reaction to the new building, as the clock tower is picture quite frequently as the icon of Williamson County and never the new courthouse.
Williamson County was a center of coal mining and thus a place with many immigrants, and thus it has a frightful history of violence, both due to racial issues an and also to labor issues, that it was notorious nationwide for some time as "Bloody Williamson.
Williamson County was named for Williamson County in Tennessee through the influence of emigrants from that county.
DeWitt County Courthouse
Clinton, Illinois
Visited: January 5, 2021
Erected: 1986
Architects; FGM of Belleville
We're really starting to hit the bottom of the barrel here. The Courthouse is a sprawling one-story red brick building with a flat roof. It is very much of the era in which it was built. It looks like it ought to be a small community college building. It very well might be the least impactful building of any courthouse we saw.
The previous courthouse was very similar to the really great courthouse remaining in Pittsfield. I can only imagine there would have been plenty of public outcry against this replacement, unless, of course, the older building was completed wrecked from disuse.
A bit of trivia (or non-trivia depending on what you believe) pertaining to Clinton. Abraham Lincoln did speak here in 1858. Carl Sandburg claimed that in that speech, Abe originated to statement:
"You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time."
However, the transcript of the speech doesn't include that statement. There are some who claim he made that statement in a speech in Bloomington, but the most significant belief is that he never actually said that at all.
DeWitt County is name for De Witt Clinton, governor of New York and the man responsible for the construction of the Erie Canal.
Sangamon County Courthouse
Springfield, Illinois
Visited: June 27, 2020
Erected: 1991
Architects: Fischer - Wimosky
Another simply wretched building. It's a seven-story red brick building with concrete trim. The top floor has large arched windows, and the entrance is marked by a semi-circular recessed arched rising all the way to the top o the building. It looks like it should be a hospital. Not helping the situation, it is built very close to 9th St., a major north-south thoroughfare with nothing to separate it from traffic be a narrow sidewalk. Springfield really deserves something better than this.
This might be the single most step down in impact of any courthouse transition we saw. Previous to this building, a lot of the Sangamon County offices were held in the beautiful Greek Revival old Statehouse a few blocks away. Because of that building's significance in the career of Abraham Lincoln, the state resumed control and after a major reconstruction opened it as a historic site. And the Sangamon County offices ended up here...
Springfield is packed with interesting sites related to the life of Abraham Lincoln and also the fantastically beautiful "new" Illinois State Capitol building, making the city a great destination. Sadly, aside from the Lincoln sites, though, Springfields seems a little run down as a capital city.
Sangamon County was named for the Sangamon River which runs through it.
Adams County Courthouse
Quincy, Illinois
Visited: October 9, 2020
Erected: 1950
Architects: Holibird, Root, & Burgee and Hafner & Hafner
I would like to say this photo doesn't do the Adams County Courthouse justice, but in fact it looks even worse in person. The building ai a three story block, the first story clad in concrete, the upper floors in red brick. It appears that when built, it share space with the Quincy City Hall, but that isn't the case any longer. The building is void of any decorative elements and there is not even a hint of landscaping to ease the horror of this building. There are a number of windows blocked and bricked in, but I thin that was actually part of the original intent. Unfortunately it gives an overall impression that part of the building is boarded up and somewhat abandoned.
The situation is made only worse because of the attached and newer county jail building which is quite a bit more inviting. The former courthouse was a grand 1888 Victorian pile on the city square, but was destroyed by a severe tornado and the current building was its replacement.
The dire nature of this building is especially sad in that Quincy is the home of a significant collection of spectacular mid-century modern buildings, including the airport terminal and the soaring St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church (now closed). This courthouse is truly and embarrassment.
Adams County was named for John Quincy Adams.
Ok, that does it for the least interesting group of Modern-style courthouses. Next up is the group of what I call post-modern buildings...buildings that are new but trying in some way to be more decorative or reference some more traditional features. (Spoiler alert: they aren't much better than these.)
