Wabash County Courthouse - Mt. Carmel, IL
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 24.586 W 087° 45.659
16S E 433560 N 4251554
"Although the current courthouse is technically the same building as the one constructed in 1881, absolutely nothing remains of the original construction" ~ Wikipedia
Waymark Code: WMM34G
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 07/13/2014
Views: 1
County of courthouse: Wabash County
Location of courthouse: 401 Market St., Mt. Carmel
Phone: 618-262-5362
part of Illinois Second Judicial District
"Plans were created for the construction of the current courthouse as early as June 1879, but the final contract waited nearly two years to be signed. It was built primarily as a brick building, although stone was used for the water table and windowsills, and extensive woodworking was placed in the interior. Towers were constructed, topped with iron fence and accessible via trapdoors from within the building. The resulting Second Empire structure featured three stories of interior space under all but the lowest sections of its mansard roof.
"During 1959, county officials spent large sums of money on an extensive remodelling project, followed by another project in 1963; the resulting two-story building features a main entrance inside an ell, a few tall rectangular windows on all sides, and a flat roof. Although the current courthouse is technically the same building as the one constructed in 1881, absolutely nothing remains of the original construction,[3] and the courthouse's record in the Illinois Historic Sites Survey Inventory refers to it strictly as "2 story ugly brick (recent)" without any additional comment.
Located adjacent to the courthouse on its southern side is a war memorial featuring a soldier who stands atop a pedestal. Placed during the second half of the nineteenth century, the memorial was temporarily removed for cleaning in 2007, but it was soon returned to its normal place." ~ Wikipedia
"Named for the Wabash River which derives its name from the Indian word Oubache (pronounced wáw bash, wáa bash).
"The first courthouse was in Centerville, town that was created to serve as the county seat. Within a few years, the county seat was moved to Mt. Carmel and a new courthouse was built in 1831. This building burned in 1857, and a third courthouse, built in 1857, it was destroyed by a tornado in 1877. The fourth courthouse was built with state relief aid in 1881 and remained in use until it was "rebuilt" in 1959 and 1963" ~ Illinois Courts