Name This Peoria Landmark

Peoria Landmark #294

Recently, teachers and students of the shuttered Richland Grade School (NTPL #99) have been sharing their memories of being a “River Rat,” which I have really been enjoying. The Richland Bottoms seems to be a very nice close knit community. A little town unto itself which used to have its own neighborhood school being brought back to life by memories of those who attended.

A comment got me curious though…

Our brother Larry helps take care of the mowing around the union hall and our side of the tunnel. It is still there but closed off at both ends. Red Butler still lives in his house across the street from the school. Soo many memories.

The tunnel? I inquired…

The highway extension for which the tunnel was built connected to the Cedar Street Bridge. It was to allow access to Richland School but what it accomplished was to ultimately close the school and leave the Richland area abandoned.

I drove around the neighborhood for a good twenty minutes looking for the school before I finally broke down and asked someone. Of course! It’s on the OTHER side of the Cedar Street bridge – hence the need for the tunnel to connect the neighborhood to the neighborhood school.

If you want to find it, it’s on Maple Street.

Thank you to the passerby for directing me back to the school and to the young man who showed me where the “Old Tunnel” is, as he called it.

(Josh & Scio – you have obviously been paying way too much attention.)

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 11:10 am and is filed under East Peoria, Richland Bottoms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.