The U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, located at 100 Northeast Monroe Street in Peoria,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

, is a U.S. district courthouse for the Central District of Illinois. The building was constructed in 1937-38; it has a PWA Moderne design, a variant of

Moderne architecture Moderne architecture, also sometimes referred to as Style Moderne or simply Moderne, Jazz Age, Moderne, jazz modern or jazz style, describes certain styles of architecture popular from 1925 through the 1940s. closely allied to Art Deco. Origina ...

commonly used in Public Works Administration projects.

Louis A. Simon Louis Adolphe Simon (1867–1958) was an American architect. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Simon was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following a tour of Europe, he opened an architectural office in Baltimore, M ...

, the Supervising Architect at the time, provided the plans for the building, while Howard Lovewell Cheney was the architect of record. The courthouse has a monumental

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

exterior with

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

decorations; these decorations include

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

panels sculpted by Freeman L. Schoolcraft above its Main Street entrance. The building's interior features painted ceilings, St. Genevieve marble walls, and patterned

terrazzo Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical bind ...

floors. In addition to serving as a federal courthouse, the building also housed Peoria's main

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

until 1981.Lee, Portia. ''National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: U.S. Post Office and Courthouse''.

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

, May 2012. The courthouse was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on October 24, 2012.

References

External links

General Services Administration - Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, Peoria, IL
{{Authority control Federal courthouses in the United States Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Post office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois National Register of Historic Places in Peoria County, Illinois Buildings and structures in Peoria, Illinois Moderne architecture in Illinois PWA Moderne architecture Government buildings completed in 1938