{"nrhp_refnum":"10000992","name":"Lawrence County Courthouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1100 State St","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lawrenceville","county":"Lawrence County","state":"IL","lat":38.73093125100007,"lon":-87.68267665999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2010-12-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Politics/Government"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story brick and limestone county courthouse with a six-story clock tower at 1100 State Street on the public square in Lawrenceville, Lawrence County, Illinois, built in 1888-1889 and enlarged in 1911.","why_significant":"The nomination presents it as a well-preserved Renaissance Revival courthouse designed by the prolific McDonald Bros. firm of Louisville, Kentucky. It is one of twenty-seven courthouses or additions the firm designed in seven states, and a mirror-image sister of the Graves County, Kentucky courthouse. The 1911 addition copied the original design so closely that it looks like part of the first construction.","narrative":"Lawrence County's courthouse occupies the center of the public square in downtown Lawrenceville, Illinois, a square laid out by county surveyor John Dunlap in 1821. Built in 1888-1889 to designs by the McDonald Bros. of Louisville, Kentucky, and constructed by Benjamin F. Trester, Jr., it is the third courthouse on the square. The three-story building rises from a raised limestone basement, with red pressed brick walls, limestone belt courses, a copper cornice and a six-story clock tower holding a 1000-pound Seth Thomas bell. A stone portico with a balcony marks the north entrance. A 1911 addition to the south, by Spencer and Temple, matched the original so closely that it reads as one design. Inside, terrazzo corridors, vaulted ceilings and a hidden stained glass skylight survive. The building is significant as a Renaissance Revival work by a firm that designed twenty-seven courthouses, and it still serves county government.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"McDonald Bros., Louisville, Kentucky (architects); Benjamin F. Trester, Jr. (builder); 1911 addition by Spencer and Temple, Champaign, Illinois, with Brannon-Parker Construction Company, Carmi, Illinois","architectural_style":"Late Victorian/Renaissance/Renaissance Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still in use as a courthouse and county offices; windows and doors replaced with aluminum-framed units in the original openings.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.428868-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/35/8934/28893435/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/10000992.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/10000992/9b7b09dd88-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/10000992/9b7b09dd88-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lawrence_County_Courthouse_in_Lawrenceville_from_the_east.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lawrence_County_Courthouse_in_Lawrenceville_from_the_east.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893435","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_County_Courthouse_(Illinois)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16894014"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/lawrence-county/lawrence-county-courthouse-10000992/"}