Pritzker Names Historic Armory Building After Late Gov. Jim Edgar
Governor JB Pritzker poses with late Gov. Jim Edgar’s widow, Brenda, and his daughter, Elizabeth, after naming the State Armory building in Springfield in Edgar’s honor. (Photo: Governor’s Office)
When renovations of the State Armory building, just across the street north of the Illinois State Capitol building, some 900 state employees, many from the Governor’s office and state agencies, will work in a building with a new name.
Governor JB Pritzker signed an Executive Order Tuesday renaming the Armory in honor of the late Gov. Jim Edgar, who passed away last year.
We’re told Pritzker was looking for ways to honor Edgar in Springfield, specifically on or near the Capitol Complex. The General Assembly voted to rename a reading room in Edgar’s honor at the State Library last year. The Panther Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area in Cass County has been named in Edgar’s honor since 2001.
Former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a close friend of Edgar’s who has continued leadership of the Edgar Fellows program at the University of Illinois since his death, says Pritzker approached the Edgar family and discussed “a number of facilities” in Springfield that could be named in honor of Edgar and assigned Deputy Governor Andy Manar to finalize the details with Edgar’s family.
Pritzker’s Executive Order renames the Armory, a Works Progress Administration project dating back to the late 1930’s the “Jim Edgar Executive Office Building at the Illinois Armory.”
“There could be no greater tribute to Jim Edgar than a place dedicated to executive leadership in government, because public service was the work of his life,” Pritzker said at a news conference Tuesday. “Governor Edgar spent a lifetime serving Illinois. Today, we ensure that there is one more way that we can hold his legacy up as an example to others.”
Edgar’s family and a large group of his inner circle of supporters took part in the announcement Tuesday at the Governor’s Mansion.
“Naming this building in his honor is an extraordinary tribute. And our family is deeply grateful for your leadership and generosity and recognizing his legacy of public service,” said Edgar’s daughter, Elizabeth Edgar. “Today isn’t simply about seeing my dad’s name on a building. It’s about remembering the values he believed should always guide public service. He believed in governing with compassion, civility and compromise. He measured success by whether government worked better, whether families were better served, and whether he had left the state stronger than he found it.”
LaHood told me on the radio Tuesday afternoon he believed Pritzker and Edgar, though from different parties, shared mutual respect.
“I think Governor Edgar really appreciated the fact that Governor Pritzker took his advice and did everything that he possibly could to pass a balanced budget, and recognized that was, if not the number one most important thing that a governor has as his constitutional obligation. It certainly is something that Governor Pritzker took to heart,” LaHood said.
Renovations at the Armory continue and a projected opening has not been announced. Original estimates projected the building would reopen in 2030.
What would Edgar have thought of the honor?
“I imagine he’s looking down on us today, probably tearing up a little and saying, ‘this is pretty neat,” Elizabeth Edgar said.
