Saline County Courthouse (Illinois)

The first land purchase in present-day Saline County occurred late in 1814,[1]: 152  at a time when the nearby Illinois Salines in today's Gallatin County were still providing the majority of the area's income.

[1]: 213 By the end of 1848, Saline County's first courthouse was complete; it was a simple frame building,[2] and it grew inadequate so rapidly that a brick replacement was erected and opened in early 1854.

It was a Greek Revival structure with Doric columns and a portico on the facade.

[1]: 187  It was removed in 1904 in order to construct a larger courthouse, three stories high with an attached clock tower, and this building in turn was removed in 1967 to permit the completion of the current courthouse.

Unlike the artistic previous courthouses, the current and fifth courthouse located at 10 E. Poplar St. is a plain Modernist structure with windowless brick walls and a recessed main entrance atop a shallow flight of stairs.