What a beautiful courthouse! Today's postcard, from Dr. Mark Buckrop, never fails to elicit
oohs and ahhs when people see it for the first time. Then the question is, "But what happened
to it?" Rock Island County was officially established in 1833 and Stephenson, as the city of
Rock Island was known then, was the county seat. Stephenson Square, the block between what is
now Second and Third Avenues and 14th and 15th Streets, was selected as the site of what would
be known as Courthouse Square. In 1836, a fine brick courthouse, 50 feet square, was erected
on the south or Third Avenue side of the square. Old photos show it had round-topped windows,
a hipped roof, a tall central cupola and a wide one-story front porch facing north onto the
square.
Some years later, that early courthouse was extensively remodeled to become much more imposing –
more governmental looking – with the addition of four massive two-story columns supporting a
triangular pediment on the front (north side). The remodeled building looked a great deal like
the Buford House (now Word of Life Church) on 7th Avenue at 18th Street that we wrote about a
few weeks ago. A winding exterior staircase extended from either side of the front porch directly
to the second story.
As the population of the county increased, an even bigger courthouse was needed to replace the old
one, which was by then called "Rock Island County's disgrace." In 1895, the county's building
committee voted to accept a design submitted by the Kansas City architectural firm of Gunn & Curtis
for a new four-story building that was called, on different occasions, Spanish Renaissance or Roman
in style.
The 60-room courthouse was the work of Rock Island contractor and stonecutter Charles J. Larkin and
was completed in time to be dedicated on March 13, 1897. It cost $112,201, not including the heating
system. After the new courthouse was occupied, the old one on Third Avenue was demolished. The
courthouse is 170 foot long and the exterior is made of Bedford limestone – a hard, fine-grained
stone – which was selected to be blue in tint at the foundation level and buff above that. The marvelous
interior was every bit as beautiful as the exterior. The lower two stories have deeply recessed joints
between the stones, while the upper floors are smooth. Notice the variety of forms and functions on
the exterior – round topped entrances and windows, circular windows in the triangular pediments,
balconies, and bulbous standing-seam metal roofs and, above it all, domes – at least six of them,
large and small. It's not surprising that from the earliest drawings for this courthouse, it was
nicknamed "The Dome." That name, of course, referred to its prominent main dome that ultimately
extended 154 feet above the street.
Our postcard, from about 1910, shows the courthouse as it appeared when it was built. But when we
fast-forward fifty years to 1958 there's a front-page picture in the Argus showing the domes being
removed. Only sixty years after being built, the copper roofing on the domes had "worn out". Rather
than repairing or replacing the roofing, a decision was made to remove all of the domes, leaving a
truncated version of this originally spectacular building. We preservationists hope this wouldn't
happen today – and would like to envision a day when the domes are restored.
Today, the courthouse still has its beautiful exterior masonry and the interior has kept most of its
original fine materials – even some original furnishings. Floors in the central rotunda area and the
corridors were of marble or tile and other floors were of durable and beautiful hard maple. The
rotunda and corridors had pink Tennessee marble wainscoting. Other interior walls were paneled in
quarter-sawn oak or were frescoed.
Notice that our postcard also depicts the Civil War soldiers monument. Over 30,000 people gathered
to mark its unveiling in 1869. It was created by Rock Islander sculptor Leonard Wells Volk, who
maintained his shop at 2nd Avenue and 16th Street. Volk, who had come to Rock Island in 1853, later
founded the Chicago Academy of Design. He is also reported to be the only sculptor to model Abraham
Lincoln from life and he was able to make life-masks as well as casts of Lincoln's hands. He created
several statues and busts of both Lincoln and his rival Steven A. Douglas, which are in Springfield
and Chicago. Although our Civil War monument is still beautiful from a distance, a closer look shows
that it is weathered and worn, many of its names are unreadable, and the originally sharp edges soft and
rounded. Wouldn't it be nice to see this fine work restored and preserved for future generations?
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