Jerseyville Downtown Historic District

Jerseyville's downtown is a compact commercial and civic district of roughly five and a half blocks, centered on State and Pearl streets. Surveyors platted the town in 1834 on a grid, and the business area grew along State Street rather than around the courthouse square. Of seventy buildings and a water tower, fifty contribute to the district's character. Most are one- and two-story brick commercial blocks built between 1880 and 1929, with styles ranging from Commercial and Italianate to Chateauesque and Richardsonian-influenced designs. Landmarks include the 1893 Romanesque Revival courthouse of Grafton limestone, the 1904 Georgian-style Carnegie library and the 1916 Neoclassical First Baptist Church. Storefronts have often been altered, but cornices and upper stories largely survive. The district was listed because it records the town's rise as Jersey County's seat of government and its main commercial center, and because its buildings preserve a cohesive nineteenth century downtown appearance.