283 – Pleasant Grove School
Peoria County Landmark #283
I was reading over the National Historic Registry list for Peoria County when I ran across an item that I had never heard of. Pleasant Grove School, in Eden, Il, .6 miles west of Eden Rd, on Pleasant Grove Rd. In other words, just past Hanna City and a mile or so south of 116. Definitely a place you have to search out to find.
It was added to the National Registry in 1994. Here are a few highlights from the application (I don’t want to retype the whole thing, but it is an interesting read).
Pleasant Grove School was originally constructed in 1856 as a one-room schoolhouse, located on a wooded knoll adjacent to an existing church (removed, 1951) and cemetery. The schoolyard is separated from the cemetery by a cement block wall along the west side (constructed, 1913) and a wire fence along the south. The original grove of oak, hickory, and maple trees no longer remains on this portion of the knoll and the schoolyard is open except for a few young deciduous trees and one large pine tree. A handpump-type well is located on the west side of the building. A wood outhouse remains off the schoolyard in the southeast portion of the adjacent cemetery.
Logan Township Pleasant Grove Cemetery Association, Inc., which now owns the building and grounds, is comprised for the most part of fifth-generation descendants of the original pioneer settlers of this area which was once called “Kimzey’s Close” after the three brothers who settled near Pleasant Grove between 1835 and 1839.
The stone construction and workmanship of the building are its most outstanding features. The school is constructed of native limestone from a time of the earliest use of this material locally.
Additional Photos:
…one of the adjacent Pleasant Grove Cemetery
…and one dated 1920. The schoolhouse is on the left. On the right is what I presume is the 1869 church building which was removed in 1951.
March 29th, 2009 at 7:10 am
I want to say this is on Route 40 somewhere before you hit Bradford, but I’m probably wrong.
March 29th, 2009 at 11:24 am
How about stone church road?
March 29th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Somewhere a long rt 150 heading to Kickapoo
April 1st, 2009 at 11:39 am
On the road that Christ Orchard is on (Can’t think of the name of the road)
April 4th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Josh was close, but he’d have to take a major detour to find this place on the way, but Texas Road is only a few miles to the west.
May 15th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
My grandparents and many other relatives are buried in that cemetery. That’s also where my wife and I own a plot for our eventual demise. It’s a beautiful cemetery. They used to have a really neat stone fence with a wrought iron gate, but it deteriorated so badly, they finally replaced it with a vinyl fence. They’re raising money right now to tuckpoint the school house.