Name This Peoria Landmark

Peoria Landmark #321

Plaque on the side of this building at the Peoria Waterworks reads:

The Main Well House was built in 1890. The small metal detail which still remains at the peak of the roof was the only ornament allowed for this building by its designer. The roof itself was originally a true cone. The brick pilasters reflect the point of support for the steel beams inside used as hoists for removing well equipment when necessary. The above ground structure covers a 34 foot diameter, 3 foot think brick cylinder which extends 45 feet deep in order to tap the water bearing aquifer below.

Peoria Reflection #304

tls1995: “The Commerce Bank Building reflecting off of the Becker Building downtown Peoria.”

Exactly; although I did have to drive past to confirm this. I’m not always so artsy with my photographs, but I am trying and I like the way the window bends the angles of the Commerce building. I can’t find evidence in my brief search, but I’m fairly confident that the light atop the building gave the weather forecast, such as red for storms or white for sunny skies.  Can anyone confirm this?

What follows is an interesting article and photo from the Journal Star dated July 19, 2008.

The elevators in the Commerce Bank building stop at the 16th floor. That’s where business and public access ends, but the journey doesn’t stop there.

A flight of stairs opens into an abandoned 17th floor that once housed an office, now dilapidated from years of sitting vacant. Past a locked gate and behind a door stands a tightly-wound spiral staircase that time has seemingly forgot. Rare visitors to this part of the 90-year-old building cling tightly to the railing, which imparts a grimy layer of history onto the hands.

Climbing farther up the cylindrical passageway lit by bare, yellow light bulbs, gusts of wind howl outside what would be the 20th floor. Tucked inside a dome that looks like a bell tower, a narrow door opens. A creeping sense of claustrophobia gives way to a feeling of vertigo and one of the best views the city has to offer.

A catwalk no more than two-feet wide circles the highest point of the building, where the steady blink of a bright light warns airplanes.

It’s an unobstructed, 360-degree view from the brick ledge with a railing, surrounded by decorative stones and nothing but 20 stories of air between the viewer and the streets of downtown Peoria.

It’s an impressive view, and only a handful of people have seen it during the course of about 90 years. The Peoria County Courthouse, the businesses on Main Street, the stop-and-go flow of traffic all take on a new persona from that angle.

“It makes you appreciate our city,” said Jon Walker, property manager with Huber Brothers Corp. Walker formerly managed the Commerce Bank building and now manages others in town.

From time to time, Walker will make the trip to the top and look out across the city.

“You realize when you’re up there how many amenities we have in town,” he said. “You see what a beautiful city we live in.”

701 W. 7th Street, Peoria’s mineral springs (#237) reside on this property.

Illinois Department of Commerce website:

Peoria Mineral Springs, free-flowing for more than 14,000 years, is Peoria’s oldest landmark. The purity of the water enticed many brewers and helped to create Peoria’s successful brewery industry. In 1850, Ransom Hickey founded the Peoria Mineral Springs Bottling Works on 7th St, across from the springs. The firm operated in a long, red building at the foot of Union Hill. Peach Cider, Lithia Seltzer, and Rose Malt were some of the beverages it marketed.

Peoria Mineral Springs became the site for Peoria’s first utility, the Peoria Water Works, on Feb 1, 1843 when Col A. O. Garrett, Norman Purple, and William Moss received a charter from Gov. Thomas Ford (who is buried in Springdale Cemetery). They built a house on the site to be used as the headquarters. The house has been home to Zealy Moss, William Moss, Ransom Hickey, and Preston Clark. The Spencer Street Hill, which runs by the house, is Peoria’s only remaining cobblestone street.

Notice the CILF (Central Illinois Landmarks Foundation) plaque on the stone gate entrance, and the wood sign on the front of the building.

A guy who was working on his car in the driveway says the house is for sale at a price of well under $100,000. An MLS search turned up nothing.

View from the street:

Well, you’re all kinda close; this is the carriage house or stable of the William R. Bush home at 703 W. Moss.

Judging by the two air conditioner units and trash cans, it appears to have been modified into apartments with the physical address as 702 & 706 W. St. James St.

The the view from the street is at the corner of Sheridan and St.James, one street north of Moss. As I was driving around I noticed the CILF plaque on the street side. CILF stands for Central Illinois Landmarks Foundation. It didn’t look like much until I walked around into the back yard of the private residence (normally I wouldn’t do that, but doesn’t a CILF plaque somewhat invite a little investigation?) From the yard is where I took the original photo. It has a sign which reads:

William R. Bush Stable
Circa 1889
Once Served
Stable – Ground Floor
Hayloft & Handyman Quarters – Second Floor

I know no other information about this structure or the man. I welcome anyone who does to share and help fill in the blanks.

On a Saturday morning, as I updated this post, I explained to my wife that I couldn’t find anything about it online and only found a brief mention in a book I have- with a sarcastic grin on her face, she said “well, the kids are gone, so why don’t you run down to the library and see what you can find?”

The Powell Press Building, formerly known as the John Schwab Grocery, was moved with the help of Central Illinois Landmarks Foundation from it’s original location at 214 NE Washington to it’s current location at 110 NE Water St in 1997 and now houses the Peoria Riverfront Visitor’s Center.

It is the only pre-civil war commericial building remaining in Peoria, and according to [this] source, as of 1998, one of only three pre-civil war buildings still in existance Downtown.

Anyone know what the other two are or are they gone?

The building of many cool and non-standard sized doors, at the edge of I74 in downtown Peoria. It’s also known as the Peoria Women’s Club headquarters, 301 NE Madison, built in 1894. (this is the door on the far left-hand side of the building facing Fayette St.)

I was surprised to find very little information on this group, which was founded in 1886. A google search brings up their home page with the tag-line “build for women by women”, but the site goes nowhere. The cache doesn’t either. So much for the theory of “once it’s on the web it’s there forever.”

The most complete source of information is listed on HistoricPeoria.com. I encourage you to read it.

Mapgirl, maybe you can take this image and superimpose your family portrait over it.