1906 Post Office

Location: First Street and Lincoln Highway
Erected: 1906
Demolished: 1995
Architecture: Beaux Arts

This structure built in the Beaux Arts architectural style featured a lobby with a 30-foot high ceiling and floors laid in terrazo with white marble inlays and polished Vermont marble trim. There were three rooms for the postmaster including a restroom. A corridor led to the service windows; this area also featured terrazo floors with solid oak trim and a 22-foot ceiling. The work room used for mail handling was a 40x40 foot room with a hard pine finish also with a 22-foot ceiling. The basement was used partially as a work room for mail carriers and partially for storage.

The demolition in 1995 of this historic structure was very controversial in the city of DeKalb. There were public protests and court actions by area residents who believed that the post office building was an irreplaceable local landmark.

A new post office building was built in August of 1959 and as the community grew another replaced the second structure in the early 1970's. The 1906 building's condition had deteriorated over the years and it was finally sold and condemned. A Walgreens store was built in its place.

This building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

Images of Post Office.


Source: Sycamore True Republican June 27, 1906.