129 – Hotel Pere Marquette
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)ÂÂ
Official Website: http://www.hotelperemarquette.com/
February 10th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
ok, i’ll hazard a first wrong guess…
above the side doors to the madison theater, on madison ave.
February 10th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
I believe this is Father Pere Marquette and is found at Peoria’s Pere Marquette Hotel.
I you go there, also checkout the canoe above the registration desk!
February 10th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
The world famous Todd Rundgren sculpture?
February 10th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
He looks so sad.
February 11th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
But much better after the face-lift.
February 11th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
argh….
I worked there during the Hilton years and probably looked up at that a zillion times. But since the Madison theater is across the street, I’m giving myself .25 of a point for being in the right neighborhood.
I have zillions of Hilton horror stories, including “why” they really went bankrupt, but I’m saving those for my memoirs.
October 28th, 2009 at 10:54 am
hey I worked there in the 70s too