Historic Thebes Courthouse open for tours

THEBES, Ill. -- Standing between a large scythe with iron blades and a washtub with a hand-cranked laundry wringer, Phyllis Allison looks to the past as she counts her blessings.

"Something like this is so intriguing compared to the way we do things today," she said, touching the heavy scythe. "We don't appreciate what we have. God's been good to all of us."

Allison is part of a small group of volunteers who spend their weekends providing tours of the historic Thebes Courthouse, which sits near the corner of Fifth and Oak streets.

"It's important to me because you just hate to see all this [disappear]," she said.

The scythe, a program from the 1882 Veiled Prophet parade and a fossil believed to be the bone of a woolly mammoth are among the objects on display in the courthouse. Behind a partition, a collection of books lines one wall -- a leftover from the days when the building served as a library.

"I was just back there reading this one ledger we found in our stuff," Allison said. "It's dated 1928 and '29. It's a teacher's ledger."

Handwritten minutes from Parent-Teacher Association meetings fill the pages.

"How do you preserve something like this, you know?" Allison said. "Because if it just keeps getting tossed around like this, it's just going to ... ." Her voice trailed off.

Time has not been kind to the courthouse.

Built in 1848 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, the city-owned, Greek Revival-style building needs extensive restoration. The roof leaks, and its wide balconies are in disrepair.

"The last time anything was done was sometime in the '70s," Allison's husband, Wilbur, said. "The little town didn't have the money."

Wilbur Allison said a contractor told him the balconies alone could cost $150,000 to restore.

"Unless we can get a substantial grant, we're not going to be able to do it," said Debbie Goins, president of the Thebes Historical Society.

If stories were dollars, the old courthouse would never lack for funding.

Dred Scott is rumored to have spent a night in the building's dungeon, and Goins grew up hearing about a prisoner who dug his way out with a spoon -- a tale given some credibility by a 1937 researcher who found evidence of a hole having been patched in one wall.

Wilbur Allison said one local man used the dungeon as a temporary emergency shelter.

"He told me he lived down here when the floods came," he said. "He lived here until he could get back into his house."

Today, the society is doing its best to maintain the courthouse, which volunteer Faye Prater said attracts tourists from as far away as Alaska, Germany and Japan.

Last year, a work crew from the now-closed Tamms prison cleared brush away from the side of the courthouse overlooking the Mississippi River, and beekeepers removed a colony of unwanted tenants from a balcony, Goins said.

"We're just trying to keep the weather out of the building and keep it clean and organized," Goins said. "We're just plugging along."

The Thebes Courthouse is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and from noon to 4 p.m. Sundays from March to October.

Goins said the courthouse will host its annual Memorial Day event May 25 to 27, with food, vendors, a church service, raffle and other activities. Volunteers hope to organize a cemetery walk and living history-event this fall.

Donations may be sent to Thebes Historical Society, P.O. Box 53, Thebes, IL 62990.

For more information or to volunteer, visit thebescourthouse.com.

Pertinent address:

Fifth Street and Oak Street, Thebes, Ill.