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

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

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

PWA Moderne The Art Deco style, which originated in France just before World War I, had an important impact on architecture and design in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. The most notable examples are the skyscrapers of New York City, including the ...

design, a variant of

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

commonly used in

Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by United States Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was ...

projects. Louis A. Simon, the

Supervising Architect Supervision is an act or instance of directing, managing, or oversight. Etymology The English noun "supervision" derives from the two Latin words "super" (above) and "videre" (see, observe). Spelling The spelling is "Supervision" in Standard ...

at the time, provided the plans for the building, while Howard Lovewell Cheney was the

architect of record Architect of record is the architect or architecture firm whose name appears on a building permit issued for a specific project on which that architect or firm performed services. Issuance of building permits Building permits are issued by a ...

. The courthouse has a monumental

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, 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 coo ...

exterior with

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

decorations; these decorations include

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , 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: a man of industry, a woman of agriculture, a Native American, and a postal worker. 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 letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

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 List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

, May 2012. The courthouse was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

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