Paxton: Named for the Crystal Palace Man

The town was originally called Prospect City when three businessmen platted it along the Illinois Central Railroad in eighteen fifty-seven. When Ford County was organized two years later and Prospect City became the county seat, residents decided the name needed an upgrade. They chose Paxton, honoring Sir Joseph Paxton, the British gardener-turned-architect who designed the Crystal Palace for London's Great Exhibition of eighteen fifty-one.

The Illinois prairie and a glass palace in Hyde Park shared little in common, but the name carried ambition. The town's most unusual physical feature matched that spirit: the railroad was later lowered below street level through downtown, and today three bridges connect the two halves of Paxton across a railroad ravine that drops out of sight beneath Main Street.