Freeport City Hall, Freeport

The Freeport City Hall, located at 230 West Stephenson Street, was the historic city hall of Freeport, Illinois. The city hall was built in 1899 to replace the previous city hall, which the city built in 1868 and had outgrown. Architect David S. Schureman designed the Richardsonian Romanesque building; his design included a red stone exterior, a barrel ceiling decorated with frescoes, and a main staircase with an iron balustrade. The building's frieze lists the names of important figures in science and literature; the first letters of each name spell out Schureman's name, a loophole he exploited when city leaders denied his request to put his name on the cornerstone. The city hall served the city continuously from its opening until 2011, when city government moved elsewhere due to safety issues; it also held the city's police and fire departments for a time. It was also the site of several civil rights milestones for the city, as its first African-American alderman was elected and its first African-American police officer hired during the building's tenure. ()