123 – The Bowen Building, Peoria State Hospital
The Bowen Building on the old Peoria State Hospital Grounds in Bartonville.
The original building was a grand disaster. It was octogonal in shape with wings extending out from the center octogon capable of ‘indefinite expansion’. Unfortunately it was rife with problems- shoddy planning and shoddy workmanship, not to mention being built on top of a sinking coal mine shaft. It was torn down. (check out this photo of the original building, though!)
This institution was founded in 1895 and named the “Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane.” It officially opened in 1902 with Dr. George A. Zeller as it’s superintendent. In 1907, at Dr. Zeller’s urging, it was renamed the “Illinois General Asylum for the Insane”, removing the word “Incurable”. Two years later, all state asylums were renamed and this received the name “Peoria State Hospital”.
Though the Bowen Building did house some patients, its primary purpose was that of nurses housing.
The Peoria State Hospital closed in 1973. The city of Bartonville acquired all of the property in 1983 and redeveloped it into the industrial park that exists today, though only a handful of the over 60 original buildings still stand. The Bowen Building is the most obvious testament to what used to be.
For more information on Dr. Zeller and the Peoria State Hospital, I highly recommend the book “Asylum Light: Stories From The Dr. George A. Zeller Era and Beyond.” I picked mine up at Barnes & Noble. Dr. Zeller was an amazing man, and the great work that went on here, as documented in this book, is truly inspiring.
Some of the better references available on the web:
[ecology of absence]
[Save The Bowen]
[IlExploration] – alot of photos, including the inside of the Bowen (for those who want to relive some of their daring teenage years)
[WIU Library] – type “Peoria State Hospital” into the search window for digitized scans of historic photos.
[Historic Peoria]
[Prairie Ghosts]ÂÂ
January 22nd, 2007 at 10:38 am
The new hotel attached to the civic center?
January 22nd, 2007 at 1:38 pm
East side of the main building right off of Pfeiffer Rd.
P.S. Why doesn’t your remember me work?
January 22nd, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Ask Billy. It annoys me too. I hate typing out my info everytime- on my own blog, of all places.
January 23rd, 2007 at 1:25 am
Bowen Building, Peoria State Hospital, Bartonville.
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:41 pm
The new house your parents just built?
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:49 pm
lol, the above comment is from my fiance, i sent her the link to these entries and she thought it was my journal with pictures after our visit there a couple months ago
very cool pictures though
January 24th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Place where lots of high schoolers dared each other to go (and sometimes went in a big group) on a weekend night in 1983-1984 when there was absolutely nothing else to do in Peoria.
Or so I’ve heard.
m.
January 25th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
THE OLD PEORIA STATE HOSPITAL
January 31st, 2007 at 9:25 am
my hometown
i lived a few miles from there and went to Limestone. creeeeeeeeeeeepy place.
October 3rd, 2007 at 7:57 pm
This is a beautiful building and I wish the money could be raised to restore it. Not as a shopping mall though. I went though the State Hospital grounds in the 80’s when they had an ‘open house’. All the original buildings were there and you could go into each one and wander around. I could still to this day kick myself for not taking my camera! Everytime I drive by the Bowen, I expect to see the roof caved in as there are many holes starting along the top edge. Did you know that in August 2003 the Bowen Building was listed on Ebay for $400,000.00 dollars! In the description it said it had approx 5,700 limestone bricks and the building could be dismantled and the bricks used to build something else. Thank goodness it didn’t sell!
January 27th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
I made a number of trips through this property between the time it closed and before the village bought it. Lunch menus were still laying on the floor, a few wheelchairs still present… There was an old piano in one building. There was a very long set of stairs from the grounds down to Rte. 24, which happened to have a dive tavern. I guess some ‘tenants’ would occasionally make their way down and back up, because I saw quite a few rusty old steel beer cans along the stairway- Pabst, Falstaff, etc. Nice place to visit, but not for long!!
January 31st, 2008 at 6:53 pm
this is mainly to the people who has been in the building before it was emptied i need to know some information of what was seen,heard,found-such as discovered any info will do to contact me it’s : bunkerhill300@yahoo.com thanks
Joe Dirt
February 16th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
[...] Zeller Zone, it was later renamed the George A. Zeller Mental Health Center after none other than Peoria State Hospital’s groundbreaking superintendent Dr. George [...]
March 19th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
I have reworked original Peoria State Hospital, Peoria State Assembly Report photos. If you want a copy (19 pgs. word doc abt 40 photos) email a request to boneysr@gmail.com.
August 29th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Place just looks creepy
January 25th, 2009 at 2:27 am
my grandmother use to be a nurse there until they closed
April 7th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
In the fall of 1981, I was cast in a community theatre production of “Your A Good Man Charlie Brown.” I was in high school The production ran in a modernish theatre on the grounds called “The Campus Theatre”. Apparently it was built right before the hospital was closed from the architecture, I’d say late 60’s… It was an excellent space – very nice for performers – smallish house – probably 200 seats or less.
at that time, you could freely drive onto the “campus” of the Hospital and nose around. On weekends during rehearsal breaks or between shows, we’d wander around. We went up into a couple of the 2-story buildings that were “the wards” – It was very disturbing and eerie and we found ourselves running down the stairs and out every time.
One building clearly housed children, you could tell by the wallpaper and crayon drawings on the walls (sad). Another had heavy steel gates at the bottom of the stairs, so as we went up, we imagined it housed the criminally insane.
We found a slab of concrete in the center of one of the yards – and when we cleared it could see names written in it, and a sketchy-drawing of a clearly starving dog – very bizarre.
I’m sure we nosed around the Bowen Building, but I don’t have any specific memories, so must have been non-spooky. I think it was clear to us that patients weren’t housed in this building.
We explored one of the graveyards, commenting how sad that they were marked with small concrete posts marked only by a number and date. Again, we scared ourselves as we neared the older end, as it was deteriorating down a gully – we expected to see coffins or skeletons…
There were newer, single-story brick buildings near the front of the campus that were used, at this same time, for farmer’s markets on the weekends.
We never experienced any “haunting” evidence, other than the eerie feelings. We never explored at night – just closed down the theatre and left. While I’ve visited Peoria in the past 20 years, I’ve never gone back to see the campus – maybe I shall…
June 5th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
I heard that one of the paranormal (ghost hunter) programs filmed here. Any one have info on that? I would love to see it!
October 8th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
Hey everyone, I was just wondering if anyone could help me out and give me a address or directions to this location? I live in St.Louis and I have investigated well over 50 locations and some are not listed on any websites. I am willing to trade any info. I love sharing information, lets just not let it get out of hand due to the police and vandals getting involved. Thanks for your time..here is my e-mail
shell.robtoy@yahoo.com
Shell Robtoy