Name This Peoria Landmark

The Church of St. Andrew The Apostle is located at 1601 N.E. Madison and was established in 1896. I cannot confirm when the actual building was constructed, but it is well kept and handsome. As commenter Alex implies, the neighborhood surrounding it has seen its better days.

Their web site reads-

Nestled in the heart of Illinois for more than 100 years, the Church of St. Andrew the Apostle is proud to serve Peoria and the surrounding communities and villages. At St. Andrew’s you will find a warm, welcoming congregation, desiring to love and serve our Lord and one another as we journey together in the adventure of life, looking toward the joy of our goal with Jesus Christ in the next.

While searching online for information, I ran across this report to the Peoria City Council, dated August 26, 2008:

ACTION REQUESTED: Lawsuit filed by Kathy Henderson. Receive for information and refer to Legal Department.

BACKGROUND: Kathy Henderson has filed a Complaint against the Church of St. Andrew the Apostle and the City of Peoria in the Tenth Judicial Circuit of Peoria, Illinois. The Plaintiff is claiming that she sustained injuries from a fall on a sidewalk at 1601 N.E. Madison. The Plaintiffs are seeking damages in excess of $50,000.

This post is specifically geared towards my fellow Peoria bloggers. In trying to maintain two blogrolls, the end result was I wasn’t maintaining either. They were seriously out of date. Over the weekend I took the time to update my blogroll on the Peoria Illinoisan site, but after spending a good hour on it, I really didn’t want to try to replicate it here. Knowing that I would get caught in the same trap of not keeping them up to date, I decided to maintain the full blogroll on my other site and not attempt to do the same here.

I did add some interesting sites to my sidebar here that I like to read, and fans of architecture, photos journals and preservation will enjoy. Check them out.

As always, thanks for reading.
-P.I.

Upon hearing some rumors of abandoned mine shafts and evidence of a prohibition era tavern, I gathered together an exhibition team and went exploring. This is wooded hillside above Woodruff High School, across Abington St from Glen Oak Park. While we didn’t find what we set out to find, we did see some wild turkeys, some deer and a few appliances long ago dumped. We also found this odd feature bricked into the hillside, water freely flowing out of it. It is circularly bricked inside, similar to an old well, is filled with water and appears to go down about two feet to a sediment filled floor.

Is this “Breathers, left from the old mines to vent gas buildup” as Raoul Duke suggests, or an East Bluff natural spring, similar to the Peoria Mineral Springs on the West Bluff, as we initially thought? I have no idea. I seem to recall Billy Dennis claiming this area as his childhood hangout; maybe he knows something about it.

This also sits on the land which Neighborhood House is to build their new facility.

Here’s a zoomed out photo for perspective purposes.

And here’s a short video showing the water flow.

This is a test of the Historic Preservation Commission. The bloggers of your area in voluntary cooperation with the Federal, State and local authorities have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of an emergency. If this had been an actual emergency, this blog entry would have been followed by official information, news or instructions. This blog serves the Greater Peoria area. This concludes this test of the Historic Preservation Commission.

Soon to be voted as whether it should be granted historic landmark status. If yes, the city pisses off AMVETS, who want to sell it and move out to the old Penguin Tap in Peoria Heights. That will also piss off neighboring Riverside Community Church who is planning on buying the building so they may expand by tearing it down.

CJ Summers has been discussing this issue at length here, here, and here. He also took the time to acquire and retype part of the hand written application.

Built and dedicated in 1916, the United Duroc Bldg. is a Colonial Revival style with significant architectural features that meet criteria #4 and #6. Features include white enamel (glazed) brick and glazed terra cotta; there are elaborate decorative crowns above the dual entrances, fanlight-transom windows, terra cotta cornices, trabeated pilasters with triglyphs and gutta, Palladian windows.

Designed by WH Reeves and built by WM Allen, two key men involved in the design and construction of Peoria’s most notable buildings including Peoria’s City Hall, Spalding Institute, Glen Oak Park Pavilion, St. Augustine Manor, Peoria State Hospital, Mohammed Temple and many others.

The United Duroc building was also home to: the distinguished University Club, Battle Creek Baths and a Comptometer School and publishing company.

You can probably figure out my stance on the issue. With the uncertainly surrounding this building, I figured I’d better get a photo before it gets razed under the cover of darkness.

While running some errands, I looked at thought the windows of these buildings in the 400 block of SW Washington and saw the sky.

I drove around through the alley, correctly identified by David as the alley backing up to 401 Water Street and took the original photo and this other below. The entirety of the buildings have been gutted with the exception of the front facade which I imagine will be getting a nice face lift. I don’t know what the interior looked like previously, but it must have been bad.

It’s heartening to see more preservation and renovation going on in this area.