Name This Peoria Landmark

Peoria Landmark #291

While looking up information about “The Castle House,” which is located on Grand View Drive next to the Peoria Country Club, I found this website which published some emails regarding it.  This one is particularly interesting…

I lived in the Grandview Drive Castle from about 1962 to 1972. My family owned it and restored it. The Haase’s bought it in the 1970’s when Dad became ill as I recall.

My father, Walter F. Dexter, bought it for the princely sum of $50,000 from the Lusk family who had owned it since it was built in 1928. By 1962, the home had been used little and was in need of serious major renovation, which took a couple of years and an investment many times the purchase price.

It will alway remain for me the source of many fond memories, good times and spooky fun! It was said to be haunted, and well — we did hear plenty on stormy nights! -Dan Dexter

This home is also featured in the current (May, 2009, Issue 38) issue of Numero magazine which has this fun snipped – “A secret playroom for young children has a window to the outside, but there is no obvious entrance from the inside – unless you know where the hidden door is located.”

According to Numero, the small stone bridge fronting the house was used to cross the moat, which was drained in the 1950’s.

It was also the inspiration for the Children’s book “Melinda’s Doll House” by Bess Edmundson, and (I’ll take MAWB’s word for it) was described in Dorothy Cannell’s “Thin Woman Series.”

THill: The bridge at the bottom of “Grand View Drive”.

Historic Peoria: “Construction of Grand View Drive began in 1903, and when it was completed in late 1904, the road consisted of gravel measuring 30 feet wide and 8 inches deep. In 1936, the drive was paved and trees were planted along the road. That year, tennis courts, softball fields, and picnic areas were also added.”

Everyone knows what Theodore Roosevelt said about it, but according to PeoriaHistory.com the exact quote from 1910 is “I have traveled all over the world, and this is the world’s most beautiful drive.”

In 1996 the entire drive and park land was added to the National Register of Historic places.

Here’s a YouTube video of Grandview from a bicycle. The bridge gets crossed at the 7 minute mark.

Peoria Area Convention & Visitors Bureau via Weather.com:

The Grand View Drive Park upper entrance begins at Prospect Road in Peoria Heights (formerly Prospect Heights) and follows the bluff line from altitude 779′ above sea level for two miles. At this point it rapidly descends to its lower entrance at Adams Street in Peoria at altitude 450′ above sea level.

Ground was broken for Grand View Drive on October 14, 1903; the Drive was completed in 1906. The small park surrounding Grand View Pavilion, together with the cement bridge at the foot of the hill, were conceived as elements of a dramatic lower entrance to Grand View Drive. The charming Pavilion, constructed in 1919, reflects the Prairie Style (with Craftsman influence) architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and his followers and presents a striking view of the Illinois River from the “narrows” to the Upper and Lower Peoria Lakes. A playground, picnic grounds and restrooms are located adjacent to the Pavilion. Picnic tables are also set along some of the scenic views.

Teddy Roosevelt came to Peoria in October 1910 and was driven to the Peoria Country Club, which is located midway along Grand View Drive. On the way back to town, one of the men apologized for the condition of the roadway, whereupon President Roosevelt gazed out over the beautiful expanse of the valley below and remarked, “What difference does it make? I have traveled all over the world and this is the World’s Most Beautiful Drive.” In May of 1927, Peoria’s first radio station adopted the call letters of WMBD, reminiscent of the first letters in the phrase of Teddy Roosevelt’s remark.

In 1996, Grand View Drive Park was placed on the National Historic Register designated as the “only linear park” to receive that distinction. The Peoria Country Club, along with many beautiful, architecturally significant homes located along the roadway, complement the panorama of Grand View Drive.