What to See in Mount Carroll - Top Sights and Attractions

Performing arts theater in Carroll County, Illinois. The Timber Lake Playhouse, founded in 1961, is the oldest continuously operating professional and resident summer stock theatre company in Illinois.

The playhouse stands in rural Mount Carroll Township, Carroll County, Illinois, a short distance southeast of the town of Mount Carroll. It is located on the Timber Lake reservoir, on the east branch of Johnson Creek, near the Timber Lake resort. The playhouse is adjacent to the Timber Lake Campground and Resort.

The current theatre structure was built and opened in June 1975, following a fire that destroyed the initial facility the previous year. The theatre is now outfitted with 371 fixed seats overlooking a 45-foot semi-thrust revolving stage. An additional 18 buildings on the ground serve various residence and preparation functions, including scene and costume shops and a large rehearsal pavilion.

Beginning in 2018, Timber Lake Playhouse operates under a Category X agreement with Actors Equity Association (AEA).^[1]

Courthouse. The Carroll County Courthouse, located in Courthouse Square in Mount Carroll, is the county courthouse of Carroll County, Illinois. The courthouse, which was designed by Chicago architects Olmstead and Nicholson, was built in 1858 and has been used continuously since. During the Civil War, the courthouse also served as a barracks for the county's troops prior to their commissioning. The Lorado Taft Monument, a memorial to the county's Civil War veterans, was added to the site in 1891. According to Ripley's Believe It or Not, the monument is the only Civil War memorial with an annex, which was added to fit names which had been left off the original memorial.

The courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 26, 1973.^[2]

Building in Mount Carroll, Illinois. The Nathaniel Halderman House is a historic house located at 728 East Washington Street in Mount Carroll, Illinois. The house was built in 1854 for Nathaniel Halderman, an early settler of Carroll County. Halderman came to the county in 1841; he partnered with other early settlers to plat Mount Carroll and build the town's first mill. He also served as the city's first mayor and was later Carroll County's treasurer. Jacob Emmert, one of Halderman's business partners, built the Italianate house using brick from the city's brickyard. The house's design features an open porch along the front, a cornice with paired brackets, and a cupola atop the roof.

The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 24, 1980.^[3]

Building. The Caroline Mark Home is a historic retirement home located at 222 East Lincoln Street in Mount Carroll, Illinois. The home was built in 1906 through an endowment made in Caroline Mark's estate. Mark, who died in 1900, and her husband James were longtime Mount Carroll residents; as James was president of the city's First National Bank, the two were quite wealthy. Mark bequeathed her estate to provide housing for the area's elderly women, who were often poor and had little to no social support. The home was built and operated using the funds from her estate and is still funded by the income provided by Mark's real estate holdings. The building has a Craftsman design with buttered masonry joints, corbelled brickwork, and reinforced concrete floors to provide long-term structural integrity.

The home was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 11, 1983.^[4]

The Mount Carroll Historic District is a designated historic district in the Carroll County, Illinois town of Mount Carroll, which is the county seat. The district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is one of a total six sites in the county included on the Register.

The district was added to the NRHP in 1980. One building within the district, the Carroll County Courthouse, had already been added to the NRHP in 1973.

The District is divided into three major sections: the traditional downtown of Mount Carroll, including the courthouse, library and business district; a residential area to the south of the downtown; and further south, the historic original campus of Chicago's Shimer College, now occupied by the Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies. The great majority of the buildings in the first two sections date from before 1900. Due to a fire that destroyed the original Mount Carroll Seminary campus in 1906, all of the Shimer campus buildings are from the 20th century, but most date from before 1930.

NRHP-listed structures that are located within Mount Carroll but not included in the district are the Caroline Mark House and Nathaniel Halderman House.^[5]