The Rock County courthouse on November 29, 2015
Rock County was created by the Wisconsin Territorial legislature in December 1836 from land that had previously been part of Milwaukee County. Rock County was fully organized in 1839. The county is named for the Rock River which flows through the county on its way to the Mississippi River. Janesville and Beloit are the largest cities in Rock County.
Janesville is the county seat and largest city in the county. A group of settlers formed the community in 1835 and initially wanted to name it after Chief Black Hawk of the Sauk tribe of Native Americans. Apparently the Post Office did not think this was a good idea, and so the settlement was named Janesville after Henry Janes, one of the original settlers. Most of the residents in the early years of the community came from New York or New England, but in the 1880s a large number of German immigrants began to arrive. Janesville was known for its General Motors plant (founded in 1919) and the Parker Pen Company founded in 1888. Sadly both are long gone; Parker Pen was acquired in a leveraged buyout in the 1980s, and GM shut down its plant during the Great Recession of 2008.
Noted city planner John Nolen worked for the city beginning in 1919. He saw the Rock River as being the focus of the city system of parks. He helped plan the city of Madison as well.
The Rock County courthouse is located at 51 South Main Street in Janesville; the courthouse sits on the appropriately named Courthouse Hill with a nice view of the Rock River. There is a park along Main Street and another park behind the courthouse in the Courthouse Hill Historic District which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The current courthouse was built in 1955 and a new addition was constructed in 1997. The addition is the on the side of the building that faces Main Street.
I should note that Rock County had two courthouses for a period of time; one in Janesville and one in Beloit. The Beloit courthouse was constructed in 1963 and is located at 250 Garden Lane. It was used until 1999, when the judicial services for Rock County were centralized in Janesville.
I visited the Janesville on Sunday November 29, 2015. It was a beautiful Sunday morning and I walked around the courthouse up to the Courthouse Hill Historic District and then down to the Rock River. The courthouse is quite striking and it works well with the open park area on the Main Street side of the building. There is a large monument to those from Rock County who served in the Civil War, or as it is called on the memorial the “War of the Rebellion.”
To be honest, I have very little connection with Rock County at all. I pass through it fairly regularly when I travel to Chicago, either by car, or on the bus to O’Hare Airport. So I’ve stopped in both Janesville and Beloit many times, but never saw much of either city. The trip I made to see the courthouse was the first time I’ve been in downtown Janesville as far as I remember.
One final note: the trip to Janesville on November 29, 2015 was my 33rd courthouse visit since I began my courthouse project. Every visit has been made by bicycle, city bus or in my 2002 Toyota Corolla. In some of the courthouse photos for these visits you can see my old Corolla. But after 14 years and 1 month and a total of 168,052 miles (all driven within Wisconsin oddly enough) it was time for a new car. I now have a new 2016 Toyota Corolla which may occasionally appear in the photos of future courthouse visits.