RI County looking for way to give new life to old courthouse site

Quad Citians wondering what will become of the open field that has grown up in the place where the historic old Rock Island County Courthouse stood for more than a century will have to wait a bit longer. Nothing has been set in stone regarding what’s coming next at 210 15th St. in Rock Island, […]

Quad Citians wondering what will become of the open field that has grown up in the place where the historic old Rock Island County Courthouse stood for more than a century will have to wait a bit longer. Nothing has been set in stone regarding what’s coming next at 210 15th St. in Rock Island, according to Rock Island County Board Chairman Richard Brunk. But it appears he and other county leaders are holding to statements made when demolition began on April 15 that they would find a way to memorialize the history of the 126-year-old building.

Mr. Brunk told the QCBJ in a telephone interview, he believes the old courthouse site “will serve as a revitalized green space that will highlight the history of the site and Rock Island County, and moving forward – whether that’s in three years, five years, 10 years or 15 years – it will also provide the opportunity for the consolidation of county facilities and operational efficiencies.” County leaders also appear to have held true to earlier promises to protect the historic memorials that had been part of the old courthouse and its campus.  For example, the granite Founders Tablets that were once prominently featured in the old courthouse were carefully removed and stored. Now if all goes as planned, they will become permanent fixtures in the walls of a newly remodeled Rock Island County Board Room in the nearby County Office Building. 

As for the old Rock Island County Courthouse site itself, travelers on 15th Street these days will find little evidence of the old building’s existence beyond the remaining safety fence and random pieces of heavy equipment. Absent are the protesters who watched as Valley Construction began the process of bringing the building down. It represented the final effort in a long line of them to forestall the building’s eventual and, probably inevitable, destruction. Missing today, too, are the massive piles of brick and concrete left at the site next to a massive hole – now filled in – after the wrecking balls did their work which went quicker than many anticipated. Rock Island County Administrator Jim Grafton told the QCBJ, “I think the contractor thought that all of those big blocks, big stones on the exterior of the building were solid but they were actually more of a veneer stone. The brick was covered up and I think that contributed to making it go a little easier.” Another bright spot to the end of the demolition process is the new vistas that have opened up since the dilapidated structure was removed. “I’m very excited to see it happen,” Rock Island Mayor Mike Thoms said of public green space plans in the works for the newly created field as well as the nearby County Office Building’s remodeling, which is aimed at protecting it into the future. The removal of the courthouse also gives passersby a clear view of the Rock Island County Justice Center that had formerly stood in the shuttered old courthouse’s shadow. That’s not unlike what happened to Rock Island’s downtown landscape when the city’s old, rundown parking garage came down, opening a line of sight to the new federal courthouse and YWCA under construction downtown, Mr. Thoms said. Will the removal of the old courthouse matter in Rock Island’s efforts to attract new development to its downtown?  Perhaps, said Miles Brainard, Rock Island’s director of community and economic development.

“It would be very difficult to argue against the idea that removing a deteriorating building at a major entry point to the city isn’t to our benefit,” he said. “Anytime you have a building of any size in your downtown that is not being taken care of, that is deteriorated with a collapsed roof, busted out windows, overgrowth, what have you, that is definitely a detriment.” For Rock Island County Board member Kai Swanson, the old Rock Island County Courthouse's demolition holds some important lessons. “The catalog of missteps that culminated in the demolition of the 1897 courthouse stretch all the way back to the very design of the structure,” he told the QCBJ. “I believe firmly, however, that mistakes only become complete failures if we refuse to learn from them.” What are those lessons? “First, don’t design buildings that are resistant to adaptive reuse. No space in the old structure could be made larger, only smaller. That’s why the Illinois Supreme Court ruled a couple of decades ago that it could no longer serve as a courthouse: it simply couldn’t meet modern standards,” the County Board District 16 representative said.

“Second, when voters tell you repeatedly, as they did in failed referenda in the 1940s and 1950s, that they don’t want to do something (namely, invest in remediating the building’s persistent problems), listen to them. In 1958, the building’s distinctive domes were removed in an attempt to stop the leaking and flooding that plagued it. It didn’t work, and the former courthouse was allowed to fester for 60 more years before the last employees were finally moved to healthier workplaces,” Mr. Swanson added.  “Now work is underway to renovate the County Office Building, itself a historic structure that once housed the headquarters of Modern Woodmen of America. This will make it a functional and attractive home to the county’s administration for years to come,” he said. “More importantly, it’s evidence that some lessons have been learned.”