Marion

Formed January 24, 1823 (30^th county)

Marion County (37,727), Salem (7,284), Centralia (12,178)

The Neo-Classical style masonry and concrete courthouse was built in 1910.  It is on a square at Main, Broadway, Schwartz, and Washington streets.  Main Street is United States Highway 50 in the city.  Joseph W. Royer was the building architect.  The grounds feature a gazebo.  The county was established on January 24, 1823 from Jefferson and Fayette counties as the 30^th county.  There was an earlier courthouse also in Salem the only county seat.  Revolutionary War General Francis Marion is the source for the county’s name.  The source of the county seat name could be Salem, Massachusetts or the Biblical term for peace. 

Marion County government consists of a sheriff, an attorney, a coroner, a clerk, a treasurer, and an assessor (executive).  It has 15 Board Members (legislative.)  Seventeen Circuit Court Judges serve Marion, Christian, Clay, Clinton, Effingham, Fayette, Jasper, Montgomery, and Shelby counties and a court clerk serves Marion County (judicial.) The county is in south Illinois east of Saint Louis, Missouri and northwest of Evansville, Indiana.  The county center is in Salem 3.1 miles East-Northeast of the city center.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Fayette, Clay, Wayne, Jefferson, Washington, and Clinton counties. 

The area of the county is 572 square miles.  It is 40 out of 102 in the state.  It ranks 36 out of 102 in population in the state.  It has a density of 66.0 persons per square mile making it 37 out of 102 in the state.  Marion County has 63.3% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 57 goes north to south through the county from Effingham County to Jefferson County.  United States Highway 50 crosses east to west from Clay County to Clinton County.  United States Highway 51 travels north to south in the western part of the state from Fayette to Washington counties.  The county is a rectangle.  Salem is slightly south and west of the county center.  Centralia is in the southwest corner of the county and extends into Clinton, Jefferson and Washington counties.  Salem is the county seat and Centralia is the largest city.  Salem is 19.3% of the county population while Centralia is 32.3% of the county population.  The largest city is pronounced SEN-TRAL-YA.  This county is in the Centralia Micropolitan Statistical Area.