LeRoy Commercial Historic District

LeRoy, a farming town of about 2,800 people southeast of Bloomington, retains a compact business district along East Center and North Chestnut streets. Most of its buildings are two-story red brick structures with load-bearing masonry walls, built between 1870 and 1928. The earliest show Italianate features such as round-head upper windows and bracketed cornices, followed by Queen Anne and other eclectic designs, and early twentieth-century Classical Revival work. Notable examples include the 1884 First National Bank, the 1907 Odd Fellows Building, rebuilt after a fire, and the 1919 LeRoy State Bank with its Ionic portico, designed by Arthur L. Pillsbury. The 1903 Town Hall and the Town Park anchor the western end. The park contains a 1912 bronze statue of the Kickapoo chief Osaketa and a 1922 octagonal band pavilion. Because the town never experienced rapid growth cycles, many early commercial buildings survive, giving the district a consistent character. Twenty-seven resources contribute and two do not.