It’s always thrilling to stumble across a courthouse I’ve never seen before. A trip to Muncie, Illinois, a couple years ago led me to within arm’s reach of six! I planned my route in advance, but I deliberately avoided looking at photos of the courthouses- I wanted to be surprised, and boy, was I ever. I was gobsmacked by the Edgar County Courthouse in Paris. It’s one of the most unique in the Prairie State! Or so I thought.
Edgar County was formed in 1823. Its name comes from John Edgar, a British naval officer who resigned instead of fighting against the Americans in the Revolutionary War1. Three years after the county was established, Paris was named the county seat thanks to Samuel Vance’s twenty-six-acre donation2. Apparently, the town got its name after someone noticed “PARIS” carved on the side of a tree in the middle of what’s now downtown3.
I don’t know why the name of La Ville Lumière was carved into a tree in rural Illinois. It gives me “CROATOAN” vibes! I do know that the first Edgar County Courthouse was built by Ebenezer Center nearby for $6904. The log building measured 32 x 22 feet and sat on the south side of the square5. The second courthouse, a two-story brick structure at the center, was completed by Leander Munsell in 18326.
The second courthouse cost $4,250 and played host to debate rivals Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln on several occasions during the middle 1800s. Unfortunately, the famous sparring partners never spoke there at the same time. Douglas delivered an address on slavery in 1855. For his part, Lincoln visited frequently as a lawyer and, later, a candidate for the United States Senate7.
Unfortunately, the pedigree of Lincoln and Douglas wasn’t enough to save the second Edgar County Courthouse from falling into “very serious decline” by 18798. The structure ended up serving an even fifty years before it was demolished in 1883. Officials holed up in rented rooms and halls around town for eight years before they decided to build anew.
Around 1891, commissioners hired Henry Elliott of Chicago to draw up plans for a new courthouse, Edgar County’s third. Henry Weir Elliott was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1860. He made a name for himself by designing the Greene County Courthouse in Carrollton, a limestone Romanesque Revival structure completed in 18929.
Next on Elliott’s list was Edgar County’s, which was finished in 1893. Rising 150 feet above downtown Paris, the courthouse features a unique biaxial footprint. Essentially, it’s shaped like an enormous asterisk. The building faces north as far as I could figure, but primary access was from the southwest when I visited.
Faced with beige Amerherst stone10, each side of the courthouse that look toward the cardinal directions feature towers that frame a center gable with a pair of dormer windows. Heavy vermiculation -a carving pattern resembling tracks or trails that might be left by a worm- is apparent at the apex of each triangle.
The crowning feature of the building is its clock tower. I didn’t know this until the other day, but a real architectural term called “wedding cake style” refers to structures with distinct tiers like the tower of the Edgar County Courthouse. To me, it looks like an advanced version of something I’d have stacked with wooden blocks as a kid.
The belfry rises from a plus-shaped base to a square, hipped roof section that supports an octagonal drum. Four clock faces and an eight-sided dome sprout from the hipped roof to support a statue of “Lady Justice” that rises far above anything else downtown. I ventured into Paris from the north, and the next tallest building downtown was a three-story dance studio originally built as a post office and fraternal lodge.
The galvanized steel tower was clad in zinc sheet metal when finished in 1893. The intervening decades took a toll, though, and the belfry was in sorry shape by 2005. That year, officials hired structural engineers WJE to restore its metal coatings, replace copper roofing and decorative elements, and strengthen the entire tower. Lady Justice was even taken from her perch to undergo a complete refurbishment! She’s back now, and its clear that a lot of love has been put into the Edgar County Courthouse.
I figured Edgar County’s must have been one of Illinois’ most unique courthouses when I first took pictures of it, but I was wrong. A year after the building was finished, Henry Elliott used the same basic design for the DeWitt County Courthouse in Clinton12! He even employed his schematics for the new Pike County Courthouse. I haven’t been to either yet, but neither tamped down my enthusiasm for Edgar County’s. Despite some similarities, the landmark certainly stands out amongst its peers in most of the midwest. What a landmark!
TL;DR
Edgar County (pop. 16,852, 62/102)
Paris (pop. 8,084)
3/102 photographed
Built: 1893
Cost: $122,890 ($4.2 million today)
Architect: Henry Elliott
Style: Richardson Romanesque
Courthouse Square: Shelbyville Square
Height: 150 feet
Current Use: County offices and courts
Photographed: 11/7/2020
Sources Cited
1 Adams, J. (1989). Illinois Place Names. Illinois State Historical Society [Springfield]. Book.
2 Perrin, W.H. (1879). The HIstory of Edgar County, Illinois. William Le Baron Jr., & Co. [Chicago]. Book.
3 About Paris (n.d.). City of Paris Illinois [Paris]. Web. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
4 Deacon, J. “Edgar County”. American Courthouses. 2008. Web. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
5 (See footnote 2).
6 (See footnote 4).
7 Weiser, D. (2009). Illinois Courthouses. The Donning Company [Virginia Beach]. Book.
8 (See footnote 2).
9 Courthouse History. Keith Vincent. 2018. Web. Retrieved April 16, 2024.
10 (See footnote 7).
11 (1890) Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Paris, Edgar County, Illinois. Sanborn Map Company, Apr. [Map] Retrieved May 1, 2024.
12 (See footnote 9).
12 (See footnote 9).
