A view of the United States Post Office located in the 200 block of N. Franklin St. in downtown Decatur. The cornerstone of this beautiful Art Deco building was laid in 1934, and the post office was completed the next year at a cost of $400,000. The building was designed by the architectural firm of Brooks, Brimhall & Dague.
The fresco and mural art in this building is the most extensive to be found in any Illinois post office, including Chicago. Additional photos showing the exterior and interior art will be posted at a later date. The Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal agency established during the Great Depression, supplied funding for the artists and artisans through the WPA's Federal Art Project.
Decatur is the seat of Macon County. The city was founded in 1829 and is situated along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in central Illinois. Decatur has an economy based on industrial and agricultural commodity processing and production. The city is home of private Millikin University and public Richland Community College.
Decatur's estimated population for 2019 was 70,746, making Decatur the thirteenth-most populous city in Illinois, and the state's sixth-most populous city outside the Chicago metropolitan area.
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