Monticello Courthouse Square Historic District

Monticello's Courthouse Square district covers roughly sixteen blocks of the Piatt County seat in east-central Illinois. Most of it follows the Original Town plat of 1841. The Piatt County Courthouse sits at the center, surrounded by densely built two-story storefronts, with more scattered development to the north and south. Of 85 resources, 77 contribute: 73 buildings, three structures (two 1934 bridges and the 1935 water tower) and one object, a courtyard wall. Italianate is the dominant style, with twenty-five buildings showing its influence. Other styles include Romanesque Revival, as in the Town Hall, Opera House and Allerton Library; Classical Revival; Late Gothic Revival; and Art Moderne. The period of significance runs from about 1856, when the J.C. Johnson/I.O.O.F. Building went up, to 1959, when the Monticello Professional Building was finished. The district's value lies in how fully the courthouse square pattern and its commercial and civic buildings survive from the nineteenth century.