Name This Peoria Landmark

Peoria Landmark #295

Msgem: Jubilee College

aka Jubilee College State Historic Site.

Jubilee College State Historic Site preserves a remnant of the school founded in 1839 by Philander Chase (1775-1852), the first Episcopal Bishop of Illinois. At one time, Jubilee College occupied a dozen or more structures on a 3,500-acre tract. The school included a theological seminary, a college, a classical preparatory school for boys, and a “seminary” for girls, as well as small farming operations.

The site’s centerpiece is an L-shaped building, the design of which was adapted from an Anglican chapel near London, England. Constructed between 1839 and 1844, the two-story native sandstone building housed the school’s chapel, classrooms, and dormitory space. Today the “restored” building’s chapel wing contains representations of an 1840s Episcopal chapel, a first-story chapel extension that served during the week as classroom space, and a second-floor dormitory room. The recreated schoolmaster’s office and library are located in the larger west wing, which also contains a video theatre and museum exhibits. In 1972 the Jubilee College site was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Jubilee Cemetery, which adjoins the site, is private property.

This might shock some of you, but this was the first time I had ever been out there. Dang – pretty darn cool place. I can’t wait to go back and take the tour.

*Photo courtesy of A. Janson

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Historic Peoria. 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.