Volunteers move 6-ton chunk of old St. Clair County Courthouse

For the first time in 154 years, the sun won’t shine on a slab of limestone from the old St. Clair County Courthouse.

Volunteers from the Belleville Historic Preservation Commission along with city workers on Thursday moved a 6-ton chunk of St. Clair County history into temporary storage until a new home for the weighty artifact can be found.

“We’re in the process of trying to find a place to display this piece of the old courthouse along with some of the old columns which used to be out front,” Belleville Historic Preservation member Jack LeChien said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to find a new permanent home in the next year or two.”

With the help of a wheel loader, workers began at just after 7 a.m. the process of unearthing a 6-foot-long, 6-and-a-half-foot-wide and 2-foot-deep piece of limestone. The stone was once part of the old St. Clair County Courthouse, which was demolished in 1972 after 111 years on the Belleville Public Square.

The stone has been on the property at the home of Paul Reis, longtime co-owner of the Grimm & Gorly flower shop in Belleville, since the old courthouse was torn down, according to Reis’ nephew, Bob Green.

“They had a tow truck from Nick’s S.O.S. Garage in Belleville haul it out here,” Green said. “It’s been in the same spot ever since.”

Reis, who is 86, is unable to live in the home on his own any longer. His property is to be sold at auction next week.

The land where the stone has been for the last four decades plays a major role in the history of Belleville. It was originally the Whiteside Plantation, namesake of the school across Lebanon Avenue. According to local historians, the house on the property was where the Belleville city charter was drawn up.

The land was owned by William Lot Whiteside, who died in 1846. Whiteside was a Revolutionary War militiaman who was one of the first settlers to move to Illinois.

Green said Reis loved history and he loved the city of Belleville, so he cherished the chunk of limestone from one of the city’s most prominent buildings.

Supposedly, the chunk of limestone was part of the left-front landing of the old courthouse where President John F. Kennedy spoke on Oct. 3, 1960, during a campaign stop. Reis pinned a carnation on Kennedy’s lapel just before he spoke to a large crowd that filled the Public Square.

A month later, Kennedy was elected.

B.J. Schulte, Reis’ former employee at the flower shop, said he is still upset about local leaders’ decision to tear down the old courthouse and replace it with the one that stands on the Belleville Public Square today. He said he boycotted Belleville’s 200th anniversary celebration in 2014 in protest of the courthouse being torn down 42 years earlier.

“I’m still mad about that,” Schulte said.

The chunk of limestone was placed in temporary storage. But LeChien said he hopes to re-unite it with the old courthouse’s columns in a display at a yet-to-be-determined place in Belleville.

Schulte said Reis will be thrilled to see the courthouse stone put where people can enjoy it.

“He is very charitable and loved to help people,” Schulte said of Reis. “I think he’ll think it’s wonderful.”

LeChein said potential landing spots for the chunk of limestone and the courthouse columns include the northwest and southeast quadrants of the Public Square and the wedge at West Main and Sixth streets. A plan to put the artifacts in the South Belt West roundabout at Centreville Avenue were rebuffed by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

IDOT wanted barriers around the stones which would have been too costly, LeChien said. St. Clair County rejected plans to put the stones in front of the current courthouse on the southwest quadrant of the square.

“We want to find a high profile place where people can enjoy them,” LeChien said.

This story was originally published July 16, 2015 at 8:09 AM with the headline "Volunteers move 6-ton chunk of old St. Clair County Courthouse."