The Alexander County Courthouse is a government building in central

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

of Alexander County,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Built in the 1960s, it is the latest in a series of

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

s erected in four towns across Alexander County.

Past county seats

Alexander County was created out of Union County in March 1819,Perrin, William H., ed. ''History of Alexander, Union, and Pulaski counties, Illinois''.

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

: Baskin, 1883. and it was named for one William M. Alexander, an early settler who served in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

from 1820 to 1824 and was chosen

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

in 1822. The law creating the county ordered that the courts meet at Alexander's home in the community of

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

until a

should be chosen, and America was designated the seat in April 1819. Alexander oversaw the construction of a brick courthouse. However, America's prosperity was short-lived: an epidemic prompted most of the residents to flee, and while its location along the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

was convenient for

flatboat A flatboat (or broadhorn) was a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with square ends used to transport freight and passengers on inland waterways in the United States. The flatboat could be any size, but essentially it was a large, sturdy tub with a ...

s, nearby

sandbar In oceanography, geomorphology, and Earth science, geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank (geography), bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body o ...

s prevented newly developed

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

s from landing, and by 1821 the town was languishing. A new settlement,

Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a h ...

, was founded midway between the Ohio and

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

Rivers in 1833, and legislation was quickly passed to enable the seat to move there. County officials ordered the construction of a log courthouse in 1835, but this building burned in 1842, the victim of a fire set by a pair of escaping prisoners.Weiser, Dennis. ''Illinois courthouses: an illustrated history''.

Virginia Beach Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city ...

: Donning, 2009. Because Unity sat in the middle of Alexander County, the creation of Pulaski County from the county's eastern half left it in an inconvenient location, and in 1843 the seat was removed to Thebes, a Mississippi River town. Here, a new courthouse was built in 1848 for $4,400.

Cairo as seat

While towns farther north rotated the honor of county seat, the site of Fort Defiance at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi had been growing into a significant town. The General Assembly chartered a company to found a town there in 1837 under the name of "Cairo, Illinois", and by 1841 Cairo had two thousand residents. Nearly all the residents abandoned the town following an 1842 flood, but a newly constructed levee protected the site during the

Great Flood of 1844 The Great Flood of 1844 is the biggest flood ever recorded on the Missouri River and Upper Mississippi River, in North America, in terms of discharge. The adjusted economic impact was not as great as subsequent floods because of the small populatio ...

, and Cairo began to prosper in the early 1850s. By 1860, it was rich enough to mount a successful challenge to Thebes for the status of county seat, although a new courthouse was not built until 1865, the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

having dominated life in Cairo during the intervening years. The new building was a two-

story Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events) ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting * Story (American English), or storey (British ...

structure in the Neoclassical style with

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

ed gables and colonnade over the main entrance. Although large, this building deteriorated comparatively rapidly; it was deemed "horribly kept" by an 1883 county history, and some county offices were located in the Old Customhouse several blocks away. The old building nevertheless remained in use until 1963, when it was destroyed and replaced by the present building.

Current courthouse

Located on

Washington Avenue Washington Avenue may refer to: United States * Washington Avenue (Miami Beach) in Miami Beach, Florida * Washington Avenue (Milford Mill, Maryland) * Washington Avenue (Towson, Maryland) * Washington Avenue (Minneapolis), a major street in Minne ...

,Alexander County
First Judicial Circuit Court of Illinois, 2018. Accessed 2018-12-01. the current courthouse is a

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

building, long and just one story tall. Much of the facade is brick with numerous windows, although the right end of the facade (as seen from the street) is concrete with no doors or windows.

References

External links

Alexander County websitePhotographs of previous courthouses
{{coord, 37, 0, 20, N, 89, 10, 34, W, display=title 1960s architecture in the United States Buildings and structures in Alexander County, Illinois Cairo, Illinois County courthouses in Illinois U.S. Route 51