Albion, IL

Albion is Edwards County's seat in southeastern Illinois, where Routes 130 and 15 meet. Its early story begins with the English Prairie settlement founded by Morris Birkbeck and George Flower in 1817. Flower platted Albion in 1819 and gave it the name of the old poetic term for Great Britain. The county seat moved from Palmyra to Albion in 1821, making the courthouse square the town's civic center from an early date.

ATTRNyttend / Public domain

That English Prairie connection is still more than a line in a timeline. The Birkbeck estate site has been studied archaeologically, and local history work ties the early settlement to the wider story of Illinois statehood. Edwards County's courthouse remains at 50 East Main, with the square, circuit court, county offices, and parking gathered around it. Albion makes sense as a small county-seat town whose map is organized by two state routes, an old English settlement, and the courthouse at the center. The courthouse square remains the town's easiest landmark.