101 E. Main St, Champaign County Courthouse
Project Overview
Architect: Joseph Royer Year Built: 1901 Architectural Style: Richardsonian Romanesque
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Architectural Description |
| Designed by Joseph Royer in 1898 and built in 1901, the Champaign County Courthouse is a Richardsonian Romanesque building that stands prominently in Urbana’s downtown. The courthouse was constructed of solid masonry, a very expensive building technique at the time. However, the solid masonry construction gives the building an air of stability and strength, a symbol representing governmental status typical of municipal buildings of the time. The four-story courthouse, built at as an enormous structure compared to its surrounding context, still towers over the buildings around it. The building is symmetrical and is made up of a five-part façade. The massive square clock tower occupies the center of the building and two bays, identical on either side, flank the tower. The tower is ornate and has a steeply sloped hipped roof. Small dormer windows protrude from the sloped roof. The four corners of the tower are round columns which support decorative fleur-de-lis sculptures. A row of three rounded arches sit below the cornice of the tower. Small balconies protrude out from below the row of rounded arches. The balconies are supported by ornate brackets. Groups of two tall, slender rounded-arch windows are found below the clock. The main entrance can be found at the base of the tower. The main entrance to the courthouse is on the center axis and is deeply recessed under a large, wide, rounded, or Romanesque, arch. The west entrance is also on the center axis and is recessed below a rounded arch. | |
| The base of the courthouse is built of a rusticated red stone. The upper stories are built of poly-chromed, or multi-colored, red brick. These two types of masonry provide an elegant textural contrast. The windows on the first story are rectangular double-hung windows that are punched into the rusticated base. These first story windows have transoms, or a fixed window pane usually above a door or window, above them. A string course articulates the sills of these windows and runs around the entire building. The third story windows are groups of three rectangular windows with brick rounded-arch lintels. The rounded arches spring from pilasters which are topped with a unique column capital known as a cushion capital. A cushion capital has a square top and the bottom portion has rounded-off corners. These pilasters extend down to the second floor and separate each window. The two end bays have intricate gabled dormer windows, with a parapet, that extend from the wall surface. These dormers interrupt the ornate cornice, and grow out of the main steeply sloped hip roof of the building. The sides of the gable dormer windows have rounded columns which extend down to the second story. These rounded columns and the apex of the gable dormer support fleur-de-lis sculptures. | |
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Historical Description |
| The architectural style of Richardsonian Romanesque was named after innovative Boston architect Henry Hobson Richardson and perhaps best represented by his masterpiece, Trinity Church (1887). Richardson used elements from Romanesque architecture while drawing elements from several other styles of architecture. This style was popular for public buildings built in the late 1800s. The Champaign County Courthouse is the only example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in the area. | |
| The Champaign County Courthouse was an addition to the previous courthouse on the same site, but only a few of the old walls were used in the construction of this current courthouse. The courthouse, like Urbana High School, has been changed drastically throughout the years. It originally featured a large atrium with a sky light. The sky light, although still visible from the outside, no longer lets in light, as it has been covered up. In 1949, the central tower was struck and damaged by lightning, and a portion of it was removed, as shown in the photos below. It was struck again in 1952, so the rest of the tower was removed to just above the clock. | |
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