Maureen Holtz

Monticello (Images of America) Maureen Holtz

Carved out of timber and prairie and surrounded by fields of soybeans and corn, Monticello was founded in 1822 and named after Thomas Jefferson's Virginia estate. Monticello, a National Main Street Community, boasts an intriguing history as one of the ""patent medicine capitals of the world"" and features elegant streets full of wide-lawned mansions, such as State Street, nicknamed ""Millionaires' Row."" The impressive courthouse is ringed with brick buildings from the late 1800s. The Allerton estate, a 32,000-square-foot Georgian mansion on 12,000 acres along the Sangamon River, was donated to the University of Illinois by owner Robert Allerton. Filled with sculptures from around the world, the estate has been designated by the Illinois Bureau of Tourism as one of the ""Seven Wonders of Illinois."" In 1858, on the outskirts of Monticello, Abraham Lincoln met Stephen A. Douglas and decided to plan the debates that later won Lincoln the presidency. With its history, mansions, working railway museum, boutiques, and galleries, the community truly deserves the label ""Unique Monticello.