Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
“The Voorhies Castle is a Victorian home located in Voorhies, a small community 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Bement in Piatt County, Illinois.”
Wikipedia article Voorhies Castle, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 6 National Register listings published here for Piatt County · listed in 1979 · category: Building.
Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
The chapter on Unity Township in History of Piatt County; Together with a Brief History of Illinois from the Discovery of the Upper Mississippi to the Present Time, published 1883 names Bement. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
The very first building put up in what is now Hammond was a grain office erected by Mr. Sanford, of Bement. Olonzo Newton put up and kept the first store building in the town. He also erected the first residence, which is now a part of the hotel kept by Mr. Jno. Tenbrooke, and his wife cooked the first meal of victuals eaten in the town. Mr. J. R. Wortham opened a mercantile house in 1873, and he is still in business in the town. J. M. Baldwin opened the second general merchandise store. M. D. Cook, who was the first postmaster, had the first drug store. W. R. Evans, at present a grain merchant, had the first hardware store. George Ragland was the first blacksmith and Dr. Abram the first physician of the place.
Passage source: History of Piatt County; Together with a Brief History of Illinois from the Discovery of the Upper Mississippi to the Present Time, published 1883.
township is one of the earliest settled townships of the county. -L In size it is equal to Bement and Monticello townships. It lies directly south of the former, and the surface of the land is very similar to the same. Douglas county borders on the east, Moultrie county on the south, while Cerro Gordo township forms the western boundary line.
Passage source: History of Piatt County; Together with a Brief History of Illinois from the Discovery of the Upper Mississippi to the Present Time, published 1883.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Unity Township - 4,025 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Voorhies Castle in 2009, burning about 30 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 February 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | LOOS |
| 17 January 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | DEMMINK |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bement, the town this property stands in, in 21 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 14 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 1 tornado, 1 flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bement | $150,000 | Numerous power poles were blown down along Route 105 between Bement and Monticello. |
| April 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bement | $100,000 | Numerous power lines and trees were blown down. |
| April 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bement | $30,000 | Several trees and power lines were blown down southwest of Bement. |
| May 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bement | $15,000 | Large tree branches were blown down in Bement. |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bement | $4,000 | As a severe thunderstorm moved southeast across southern Piatt county, it blew down numerous power lines, trees, and tree limbs. Also, the winds damaged several storage sheds and barns. No injuries were reported. |
| May 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bement | $2,000 | A tree was blown down across a road in Bement. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bement | - | Medium sized tree branches were blown down. |
| May 2024 | Flood | Bement | - | Farm fields were filled with standing water. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bement | - | Several tree limbs were blown down. |
| June 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bement | - | Several large trees and tree limbs were blown down. |
| August 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bement | - | Trees were blown down in Bement. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bement | - | A tree was blown onto a power line in Bement. |
| April 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bement | - | Ten power poles and numerous tree limbs blown down. Large outbuilding destroyed three miles west of town. |
| May 2006 | Tornado (F0) | Bement | - | The tornado briefly touched down in a field. No damage or injuries were reported. |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bement | - | Several trees were blown down north of Bement. |
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bement | - | Power lines and trees were reported down. |
| August 2000 | Hail | Bement | - | A supercell developed over northern Piatt County and moved to the south southeast . In Bement, one inch hail fell. As the storm approached the Milmine area, the hail grew in size. Four inch hail was reported in this area. Several vehicles in this area received hail damage. No injuries were reported. |
| April 2022 | Hail | Bement | - | no account filed |
| May 2014 | Hail | Bement | - | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Bement | - | no account filed |
| August 2000 | Hail | Bement | - | no account filed |
No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.
Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Francis E. Bryant House | 3.9 miles | 2017 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 79000861 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Piatt County | All 6 listed properties in this county. |
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