Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse bas-reliefs - Peoria, IL
Posted by: 
adgorn
N 40° 41.676 W 089° 35.526
16T E 280985 N 4508087
The Federal Courthouse, formerly the Peoria Post Office, is decorated with four art-deco limestone bas-reliefs created for the WPA Depression program...
Waymark Code: WMC2QK
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 07/18/2011
Views: 3
Continued from the 2006 Peoria public art catalog at:
(
visit link)
...by Chicago artist Freeman L. Schoolcraft in 1938. He carved them on site during a January blizzard and noted he had to keep his carving tools warm in his coat just to use them.
“Man of Peoria Industry”
“Woman of Peoria Agriculture”
“Potawatomi Native American”
“Peoria Postal Worker”
Another blogger (
visit link) reports:
"As a highschool student in Jackson, Michigan, Freeman's work was noticed by Laredo Taft who was in town doing some monuments. So he was encouraged to study with Taft in Chicago, and he later got some nice commissions from the W.P.A., like the facade of a courthouse in Peoria."
From (
visit link)
Built in 1938 of limestone and granite, the three-story, 118,000-square-foot Peoria Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse was designed in the Art Moderne style, a streamlined look popular from the late 1920s through the mid 1940s. Public areas feature terrazzo floors, marble clad walls, and decoratively painted ceilings. The U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois is the major tenant.
This location is downtown, not far from the Pere Marquette Hotel where I was staying for a genealogy conference. Just happened to find this building while enjoying a walk around the area looking for other waymarks.