Golconda Historic District

Golconda is a small Ohio River town and the seat of Pope County in southeastern Illinois. This district takes in most of the town north of Pope Street, along with a large stretch of open land to the north, about 437 acres in all. Settlement began in 1798 under Major James Lusk, who ran a ferry and tavern, and the town was later laid out and named Golconda by Green B. Field. Main Street keeps two-story brick commercial buildings with decorative brick trim from the era of river trade. A brick and stone courthouse built in 1872 sits in a tree-shaded square. Surrounding streets hold sturdy frame and brick houses, many built by German craftsmen from the 1860s onward, with the most elaborate Victorian homes dating from the 1880s, when the town reached its peak prosperity. The nomination values the way this nineteenth-century fabric survives, despite flood walls, fires and demolitions after the 1937 flood.