St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church was established in the 1890s and built their first home on West Fifth Street. John Caesar is thought to have been the first pastor. Other pastors were F. D. Hightower, J. W. Hall, A. R. Cooper, B. Gay, and J. E. Brown.
During the pastorate of C. W. Harris, in 1922, the congregation bought this lot on North Maple Street and built the present structure.
Renovations were made in 2002, under the leadership of Reverend Jasper Drew.
This is another example of the popular utilitarian gable front form. It required only basic carpentry skills and as a result, numerous variations were built. This one is adjacent to St. James A.M.E. Church and may have had some connection.
Mt. Pleasant Christian Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1891, but the names of the organizers are unknown with the exception of the first Pastor who was a Reverend Home. Early services were held in an arbor and a simple church building was constructed soon thereafter. In 1910, during the pastorate of J. H. Davis, the present church was erected. It’s one of the oldest African-American congregations in Adel.
This could also be identified as a shotgun house, though it’s slightly larger than most examples of that form.
A marker placed on the church by the John Howell, Sr. Chapter of the Colonial Dames of the 17th Century notes that this is the oldest church in Cook County. Constituted in July 1859, it was known for many years as the Lime Sink Church, for the mysterious lake located adjacent to the property and historically used by the congregation for baptisms. The so-called lime sink is a mystery because its source is unknown and analysis has never found any lime at the site.
Edward Godwin writes: This was once a hospital and the office of Dr. F.N. Clements.
This historic New Deal post office was saved and is now home to the Cook County Historical Society Museum. Mary A. King writes: My father, James S. Bailey, was in charge of some of the W.P.A. projects at that time and I know some of the work in Cook County was his, and I believe he was in charge of the construction of the post office, too. I seem to remember having seen photos of the construction process and hearing my parents talk about it, but I wasn’t born until 1941, just before the war started and that changed a lot of things, of course. He was doing W.P.A. projects around Ashburn and Sycamore when I was born because I was born in Sycamore and our home was Nashville in Berrien County.
National Register of Historic Places
I always thought this was an old theatre, but thanks to B. Sutton, I now know that it was originally a Ford dealership and was later O. P. Fausett’s Phillips 66 station.
Designed by William J. J. Chase, the “Stripped Classical” design of this courthouse is often mistaken for Art Deco.
National Register of Historic Places