255 – “The Old Reservoir” @ Washington Gifted School
For those who like a challenge…
Honestly, I didn’t think anyone would know what this was. “Sam” proved that I should never underestimate my readers.
‘The Old Reservior’ The original reservoir was built in 1890-91 up on Grand Boulevard. Three steam engines at the Main pump house at river level could pump over 7 million gallons of water a day up the hill to the reservoir. Lined with over 870,000 paving bricks, the reservoir could store over 19 million gallons of water and had a maximum depth of 40 feet. When use was discontinued, the steam engines were replaced by electric motors, and the land donated to the Peoria Public School District. The reservoir has since been filled in and is used as athletic fields for adjoining Washington Gifted School.
Picture and text from the CityLink 2001 calendar.
October 1st, 2008 at 1:39 pm
the reservoir that used to be at the current site of Washington Middle School in Peoria?
October 5th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
haha, i went to Washington for my middle school years, where this picture hung in the school…i recognized it instantly
October 5th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Funny, I had never heard of this before until I randomly stumbled upon it while looking for something else!
October 26th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Washington School used to be called Reservoir School. In the mid 50’s some kind of bug laid eggs in the water reservoir and little white worms came out in the faucets in a large area of the east bluff. Folks were told that these worms were harmless and to strain their water to catch them. This problem lasted for a couple of weeks and I seem to recall that the water reservoir was closed shortly thereafter. I remember the newspaper ran several stories about the worms – check it out.