Old Market House (Galena, Illinois) Old Market House (Galena, Illinois) The Old Market House, currently being operated as the Galena Welcome Center, is a brick building built in the Greek Revival style in 1845 in Galena, Illinois. It is owned and operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency as an Illinois State Historic Site. The Old Market House was built by the city of Galena to serve as a city hall and enclosed public farmer's market. A rapid increase in population in the Galena area in the 1830s and 1840s, largely a result of the discovery of galena, a kind of lead ore found in
Galena Historic District Places. The Galena Historic District contains more than 1,000 buildings constructed before 1900 that are considered contributing properties. The center of downtown Galena is laid out in three parallel segmental tiers starting at Main Street closest to the river. Beyond Main Street, and at a higher elevation, are Bench and Prospect Streets. Main Street forms the primary commercial strip through Galena and is lined with buildings two, three, and four stories tall. Most of Main Street's structures are built of red brick and cast in Federal style of the simple commercial style of the 1840s. On Bench Street, most of