Carlinville is a small central Illinois town whose best sights come from moments when local ambition outran common sense. The courthouse square is the main event: a grand 1870 limestone courthouse that cost so much it became known as the Million Dollar Courthouse, paired with a Gothic old jail built to stop escapes by hiding Civil War cannonballs inside the walls.
The other reason to stop is northeast of the square. The Standard Addition Sears Homes district was built for mine workers during the First World War and remains one of the largest concentrated groups of Sears kit houses in the United States. It is not flashy, but walking the blocks gives a clear view of how mail-order architecture became ordinary American neighbourhood fabric.
Carlinville works best as a half-day detour between Springfield, Alton, and St. Louis rather than as a stand-alone trip. Give it time if you like courthouse scandals, small-town architecture, or the odd places where industrial history left a handsome street grid behind.