{"nrhp_refnum":"85003058","name":"Taylorville Courthouse Square Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Vine, Walnut, Adams, and Webster Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Taylorville","county":"Christian County","state":"IL","lat":39.54840319500005,"lon":-89.29600587380962,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-12-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district in central Taylorville, the Christian County seat in Illinois, made up of the courthouse block and surrounding blocks of the central business district. It contains 84 buildings, mostly two and three story brick commercial buildings from before and after 1900.","why_significant":"The district is the commercial and civic center of Taylorville and keeps a largely intact ring of nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings around the Romanesque Revival courthouse. It shows the town's growth from a small county seat of the 1840s to a mature business district, with no gaps in the street face around the square. The period of significance runs 1875-1930.","narrative":"Taylorville's courthouse square and the surrounding central business district form a compact historic district of 84 buildings, 67 of them contributing. At its center stands the three-story, rock-faced limestone Romanesque Revival courthouse, built in 1902 with a 40-foot clock tower. Around it are two and three story brick commercial buildings in Italianate, Queen Anne, Romanesque Revival, Prairie School-related and Moderne styles, along with a 1904 Mission Style library, a 1917 post office and a few frame houses. The county seat began with a small frame building in 1839, and growth quickened after a railroad arrived in 1869. Most surviving buildings date from 1875 to 1930, the period of significance. Many storefronts have been altered, yet upper-floor windows and cornices often remain. The square has no missing buildings in its street faces, and its 80-foot-wide streets give the courthouse a strong setting. Upper floors are often empty and deteriorating.","period_of_significance":"1875-1930","architect_builder":"Courthouse square buildings include the 1913 fourth-floor addition to the Antlers Hotel designed by Deal & Ginzel of Lincoln, IL; the second courthouse (1856) was built by J. Dennis and John C. Ream of Springfield.","architectural_style":"Italianate, Romanesque Revival, Beaux Arts Classicism, Spanish Colonial Revival, Mission, Queen Anne, Moderne and Prairie School-related styles","criteria":[],"status_note":"Many buildings are well maintained at street level, but most upper floors are empty and deteriorating, and several large buildings on the east side need rehabilitation. Condition is rated good and altered.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:34.400978-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/50/8918/28891850/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/85003058.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003058/81c63fcab5-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003058/81c63fcab5-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"Nyttend, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christian_County_Courthouse,_Taylorville.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28891850","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylorville_Courthouse_Square_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18158663"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/christian-county/taylorville-courthouse-square-historic-district-85003058/"}