Rock Island County courthouse has Wednesday date with wrecking ball

Weather permitting, demolition is expected to begin Wednesday, April 5, on the old Rock Island County Courthouse.  As of this morning, workers with Rock Island County’s demolition contractor Valley Construction were continuing to clear the site and bring in heavy equipment including the wrecking ball necessary to bring down the structure. The razing of the […]

Weather permitting, demolition is expected to begin Wednesday, April 5, on the old Rock Island County Courthouse.  As of this morning, workers with Rock Island County’s demolition contractor Valley Construction were continuing to clear the site and bring in heavy equipment including the wrecking ball necessary to bring down the structure. The razing of the building will mark the end of a years-long battle over the fate of the courthouse. Once the site is cleared, Board Chairman Richard “Quijas” Brunk hopes to create a greenspace and include features such as a gazebo that could be used to incorporate some of the building’s long history, Rock Island County Administrator Jim Grafton told the QCBJ in an interview today, April 4.  The historic memorials on the grounds also will be protected during demolition and will feature prominently in the new parkland area created in the building’s footprint. The county is putting together a local committee to explore ways to honor the courthouse history in the new space.

The City of Rock Island issued the permit for demolition late last week to allow the 105,000-square-foot building to be razed. The permit, dated Friday, March 31, is for demolition of the building at 210 15th St., Rock Island. Demolition cost is estimated at $400,000. “The city has always held that once the county could demonstrate compliance with the law, the city would be obligated to issue the demolition permit,” Miles Brainard, Rock Island community and economic development director, said on Monday, April 3. “The documents provided by the county sufficiently demonstrate compliance with the law and so the city has issued the demolition permit,” he added. “The city cannot deny a complete and otherwise lawful application for a permit. The permit is valid for six months, but staff do not know a more specific timeframe for completion.” Mr. Brainard also made it clear that the city continues to take no position on the demolition itself. Documents filed along with the permit included a December 2022 ruling by Illinois Tenth Circuit Court Judge James Mack of Peoria County. It said “there is no TRO (temporary restraining order) in place to prevent the demolition of the former Rock Island County Courthouse, and to the extent a TRO existed it is hereby dissolved.” The permit also included a document showing that the county had conducted through the State Historic Preservation Office and the Illinois EPA an official “recordation” – or historic documentation of the building. It was required by the Third District Appellate Court in 2020. Among the things recorded were drawings, photo prints, a historical narrative, historic photographs and maps. That fight over the fate of the old courthouse is longstanding and heated up after the Rock Island County courts fully moved out of the old courthouse and into the then-new Rock Island County Justice Center courtroom addition in December of 2018.

For years, the courthouse building has been boarded up and fenced in waiting for either the wrecking ball or someone who is willing and able to save it. Preservationists seeking to save the structure scored their most recent victory in March 2019 when the Third District Appellate Court of Appeals in Ottawa issued a stay. The groups and individuals who filed that suit included: Landmarks Illinois; the National Trust for Historic Preservation; the Rock Island Preservation Society; the Moline Preservation Society; the Broadway Historic District Association; and Frederick Shaw, one of the bondholders in the Justice Center Annex project.  According to the Rock Island Preservation Society, the old courthouse was dedicated on March 13, 1897, and cost $112,201 to build, not including the cost of the heating system for the 60-room structure.  After the then-new courthouse was completed and filled, the old county courthouse on Third Avenue was demolished, the society said.