The Douglas County Courthouse is a government building in Tuscola, 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 Douglas 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 ...

. Completed in 1913, it is the third

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 ...

in the history of Douglas County. Douglas County's first pioneers arrived in 1829, although occasional

squatters Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

had been present beforehand. The widespread prairies were deemed a barrier to early settlement, so the population of the area (then part of

Coles County Coles County is a county in Illinois. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,863. Its county seat is Charleston, which is also the home of Eastern Illinois University. Coles County is part of the Charleston- Mattoon, IL Micropolitan S ...

) remained low into the 1850s,Gresham, John M. ''Historical and biographical record of Douglas County, Illinois''. Logansport: Wilson, Humphreys, 1900. and Douglas County was formed in 1859. The bill providing for the creation of the county permitted an April 1859 public vote on the location of the seat, and candidate communities included Tuscola,

Arcola Arcola may refer to: Places ; Australia * Arcola, Grafton, a heritage-listed house in New South Wales ;Canada * Arcola, Saskatchewan, a town in the Province of Saskatchewan * Arcola Airport, an airport in the Province of Saskatchewan ;England * ...

, Camargo, and Hackett's Grove. The county court quickly annulled this vote, due to gross

electoral fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...

(the number of votes from both Tuscola and Arcola was ten times the number of voters in the two towns), and only after a second vote one month later could the seat's assignment to Tuscola be settled. The county's first court session was held in an

Illinois Central The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also co ...

depot, and later sessions in two different commercial buildings, including one rented by the county recorder. The initial purpose-built courthouse was a small wooden building, which was erected at private expense.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, 41. Construction began in 1864 on the second courthouse, 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 ...

brick building with sheriff's house and jail in the basement. O.L. Kinney, the Chicago architect responsible for the design, projected a $15,000 cost, but the final cost amounted to nearly three times that estimate. Further costs appeared on an annual basis, due to numerous problems that required expensive maintenance, and the placement of the jail inside the courthouse was eventually deemed unsafe to use. Consequently, the current courthouse was built in its place over a two-year period, beginning in 1911 and being completed in 1913. A stone Neoclassical structure with a three-part facade featuring Ionic columns in the center, it cost approximately $170,000 to complete.

References

External links

Douglas County websiteRecord
from the Illinois Historic Sites Survey {{coord, 39, 47, 44, N, 88, 17, 7, W, display=title Government buildings completed in 1913 Buildings and structures in Douglas County, Illinois County courthouses in Illinois Neoclassical architecture in Illinois Stone buildings in the United States 1913 establishments in Illinois