Monroe

Formed January 1, 1816 (8^th county)

Monroe County (34,953), Waterloo (11,014)

A red brick Federalist style building is the 1853 courthouse.  It was enlarged in 1906 and in 1995.  It is sited at Main, 3^rd, Market and Mill streets.  Illinois State Highway 156 is two blocks south of the site.  Lloyd Prater is the building designer.  The grounds feature a gazebo and a bison statue.  Monroe County is cut from Randolph and Saint Clair counties on January 1, 1816 as the 8^th county.  Harrisonville was the first county seat with Waterloo taking over in 1825.  The county is named for President James Monroe.  The county seat is named for the Battle of Waterloo. 

Monroe County government consists of a sheriff, an attorney, a coroner, a clerk, a treasurer, and an assessor (executive).  It has 3 Board Members (legislative.)  Twenty-four Circuit Court Judges serve Monroe, Perry, Randolph, St. Clair, and Washington counties and a court clerk serves Monroe County (judicial.) The county is in southeast Illinois on the border with Missouri.  The Mississippi River is its western border.  Saint Louis, Missouri is directly north of the county.  The county center is in Waterloo 1.6 miles West-Southwest of the city center.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Saint Clair and Randolph counties and Missouri. 

The area of the county is 385 square miles.  It is 75 out of 102 in the state.  It ranks 40 out of 102 in population in the state.  It has a density of 90.8 persons per square mile making it 26 out of 102 in the state.  Monroe County has 67.7% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 50 cuts the northern tip of the county coming from Saint Clair County, north, and going into Missouri, west.  The county is shaped like a bouquet of flowers lying on its side.  Waterloo is located in the northern third of the county.  Waterloo is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 31.5% of the county population.  This county is in the Saint Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area.