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BLOOMINGTON — Archaeologists on Monday uncovered part of the footprint of the 1836 courthouse where Abraham Lincoln often worked as an attorney.

The discovery by archaeologists Floyd Mansberger and Christopher Stratton came about an hour after an excavator started digging on the south side of the McLean County Museum of History. It was the first day of a two- to three-week archaeological search before construction starts on a new entrance into a planned tourism center on the lower level of the history museum.

"They literally found where the courthouse was," said Greg Koos, the museums' executive director. "They found the corner and now can plot out the exact location. These are the physical remains of an incredibly historical episode in McLean County."

The 1836 courthouse, a two-story brick structure, was the second for the county, replacing a wood frame building. It sat slightly closer to Washington Street than the current building and served as the local courthouse until it was torn down in 1868 to make room for an Italian Renaissance-style courthouse. The 1868 courthouse was destroyed in June 19, 1900 in what became known as the Great Downtown Fire.

The current building was built in 1903 and served as a courthouse for several decades. The McLean County Museum of History opened in the building in 1994.