Macon

Formed January 19, 1829 (51^st county)

Macon County (104,003), Decatur (70,901)

The Art Deco style courthouse was built in 1939.  It is located on Franklin Street between Water and Wood streets.  United States Highway 51 is Franklin Street.  Aschauer & Waggoner and Charles Harris are the masonry and concrete building architects.  A county Administrative Center has been added recently.  The county was formed on January 19, 1829 from Shelby County as the 51^st county with Decatur as the only county seat.  Revolutionary War hero Nathaniel Macon is the namesake for the county.  War of 1812 hero Stephen Decatur inspired the name of the county seat. 

Macon County government consists of a sheriff, an attorney, a coroner, a clerk, a treasurer, and an assessor (executive).  It has 15 Board Members (legislative.)  Eleven Circuit Court Judges serve Macon, Champaign, DeWitt, Douglas, Moultrie, and Piatt counties and a court clerk serves Macon County (judicial.) The county is in east central Illinois east of Springfield, Illinois.  The county center is in Decatur 1.1 miles North of the city center.  The county is surrounded clockwise by De Witt, Piatt, Moultrie, Shelby, Christian, Sangamon, and Logan counties.  

The area of the county is 580 square miles.  It is 38 out of 102 in the state.  It ranks 19 out of 102 in population in the state.  It has a density of 179.3 persons per square mile making it 17 out of 102 in the state.  Macon County has 87.2% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 72 goes east to west from Piatt County to Sangamon County.  United States Highway 36 goes east to west, entering from Douglas County and joins Interstate Highway 72 into Sangamon County.  United States Highway 51 goes north to south from De Witt to Shelby counties.  The county is overall rectangular with its southeast corner missing and an added “nose” out to the west.  Decatur is near the county’s center.  Decatur is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 68.2% of the county population.  This county is in the Decatur Metropolitan Statistical Area.