Urbana native, Joseph William Royer is well-known for being the architect of The Urbana Free Library (1917), the Champaign County Courthouse (1901), and Urbana High School (1913). But his designs extended beyond Urbana and Champaign County, and even Illinois reaching into Iowa and Indiana. School buildings and personal residences account for nearly half of Royer's projects and by the 1920s his firm was advertising itself as 'school architects.' Below are a sampling of area schools designed by Royer. Grand designs, all.
Urbana High School, Urbana, IL; Bloom Township High School, Chicago Heights, Illinois;
Eureka High School, Eureka, Illinois; Dubuque Jefferson High School, Dubuque, Iowa
Niles East High School, Skokie, Illinois
For more local school images you can visit our albums: One Room Schools of Champaign County or Urbana Schools, Past and Present.