Monmouth Courthouse Commercial Historic District

Monmouth's downtown core, arranged around the Public Square in western Illinois, forms a commercial district of about 73 resources. Laid out when the town was platted in 1836, the square holds a circular park, and the district extends along North and South Main Street and South A Street. The oldest surviving building is the 1846 Thompson Block. Fires, especially the 1871 blaze that destroyed the southeast quadrant of the square, led to widespread rebuilding, so many structures show Italianate arched and hooded windows. Other landmarks include the 1895 Richardsonian Romanesque Warren County Courthouse, the 1883 county jail, the three-story Colwell department store of 1904 with its 1911 annex, and the 1935 Art Moderne Maple City Dairy. Most buildings date before 1930, while later construction was smaller in scale after the Depression and the decline of local cigar and farm implement industries. Nine buildings are non-contributing because of recent construction or added false façades. The district shows how a Midwestern county seat grew, burned and recovered.