Name This Peoria Landmark

A very popular and photogenic landmark…

I knew JW would come through for me with a little history:

“I believe, tho I’m always usually mostly wrong about everything, that this is the pergola, built in 1919, then redone sometime in the 1950’s, when the brickwork was added and it was made smaller than the original, which was 100 feet by 15 feet with center dome 20 feet high.”

I can only find one reference in the book The Grandest Views: “Another of man’s touches was the construction of a wooden pergola completed in 1919. It was “a beautiful structure 100 feet long by 15 feet in width, with a dome in the center over 20 feet in height.” The wooden lattice deteriorated, but the open-aired center portion still peeks out from behind the Ingersoll monument.”

David: “And they recently gained back a little ground against the graffiti that was all over the white columns so hooray for that. My only hope is that the darn thing doesn’t fall over anytime soon - the wood has seen better days.”

Sara Partridge was quoted in the Journal Star with this little tidbit: “On the hill going up from Perry Street there is a pergola. At one time, it was very, very photographed. It is now falling apart”

Peoria Historic Preservation Commissioner Paul Day, in the same Journal Star article said this: “In making several trips through the park since this came up, I see the pergola behind the Ingersoll statue is really deteriorated. It’s now that the structure needs to be repaired and saved.”

I can honestly say I didn’t get close enough to inspect it, infact, I didn’t even get out of my car, but I’m getting the urge to check it out a little closer now.

University near Forrest Hill. Specifically in the auto parts store parking lot facing south, keeping enough distance that I don’t get splashed. As anyone know drives down University with any regularity can tell you, I could put this photo up just about anytime it rains.

As Emtronics said: “Seriously, the city should fix this hazard. For crying out loud, drill a hole so it will drain.”

As my wife said today, rolling her eyes, as I alerted the kids to the fun up ahead and steered to the right for maximum splash effect: “I swear, you’re such a man!”

David: “This might just be the back of the “ready-to-fall-over-anyday-nowâ€? National Guard Armory, just east of I-74 between Adams and Jefferson. I like how you can see the open roof through the window…

I’ve never seen it from this angle - so that’s either cool or it means I’m way off.”

David, you weren’t way off; there are many similarities. Was Buckethead an alumn? I had convieniently forgot that they were tearing this down. I happened to be driving by and did a double-take (yes, honey, that’s why I was late getting home).

More photos (click to enlarge):

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Tacoma Class Patrol Frigate: (MC Type T. S2-S2-AQ1) Originally authorized as Patrol Gunboat, PG-175; Redesignated a Patrol Frigate, PF-67, April 15, 1943

Laid down May 25, 1943 under a Maritime Commission contract by the Leatham D. Smith Shipbuilding Co., Sturgeon Bay, Wisc.; Launched October 2, 1943

Accepted by the Navy in July 1944 and placed in service to be ferried to another port for further outfitting

Delivered in October 1944

Placed in commission October 15, 1944, probably for the purpose of moving her from the Great Lakes area to the Gulf of Mexico

Placed in full commission as USS Peoria (PF-67), January 2, 1945 at Houston, TX

On March 4, 1945 she made her only wartime operational voyage, escorting a convoy to Gibraltar and returning to the U.S. with another convoy from Algeria.

Peoria then spent a brief amount of time in New York, until she was sent to Casco Bay, ME for use in anti-submarine training.

Departed Casco Bay for New London, CT, May 7, 1945 to assist in training of submarine crews.

Assigned to Charleston, SC, May 21, 1945 to be retrofitted as a weather station ship to work in the north Atlantic.

Decommissioned May 15, 1946;

Struck from the Navy Register June 19, 1946

Turned over to the State Department Liquidation Commission and sold to Cuba as Antonio Maceo (F-302), June 16, 1947

Sunk as a target in 1975.

 

History courtesy of a combination of three sources:

NavSource Online - Frigate Photo Archive (photo borrowed from here, who borrowed it from the “Historical Collections of the Great Lakes”)
Wikipedia
Naval Historical Center (Josh’s Site)

Because I don’t want to repeat myself all the time, I’ll just say it here.  Sometimes I don’t have a chance to sit down and update the site.  I have a job and a family.  This is a hobby.  I’m not making excuses, I just want people to understand that it won’t be updated daily.  I try to put up at least two posts per week, if not more, but it doesn’t always happen.  Thanks for your patience.

Something many of you may not realize is that if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the main page you can see the most recent comments.  People still leave comments on old posts as they are discovering this site either from a random google search, peoria.com, or one of the blogs and they’re fun to read.

As always, I appreciate those long time contributors, and I welcome those of you who are just finding this site.  Have any ideas or photos?  Email me.  PeoriaIllinoisan@Yahoo.com

1904 NE Monroe (across the street from Woodruff H.S.)

Not sure what they do in there, but they’ve got one cool building.

Uncropped photo:

The Hotel Pere Marquette. Opened to great fanfare in 1927 as a five star hotel, it would turn into the Peoria Hilton in the 1970’s only to go bankrupt and close in 1980. After a 20 Million dollar refurbishing, it reopened it’s doors in 1983 under new ownership and is again undergoing a multi-million dollar upgrade. To this day, it remains vital to the downtown landscape of Peoria.

The Hotel is named after the famous French missionary Father Jacques “Pere” Marquette who explored the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers.

The photo above is the “before” from the spring of ‘06. This is the “after” photo and how it looks today. Much nicer, don’t you think?

(congrats and thank you to epmaggie)

(.25 points go to JW for being in the neighborhood) 

Official Website: http://www.hotelperemarquette.com/