Name This Peoria Landmark

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.

Located on the bluff just below Moss and above Martin Luther King Drive [map]. When you see the old stone stairway headed into the woods, you’re there.

Geocaching.com:

Peoria’s Mineral Springs is located on a site on the hillside of Peoria’s Historic West Bluff. The cave-like barrel-vaulted brick reservoir, built about 1843, is concealed in the gentle slope of the hillside. The reservoir, built for Peoria’s first water company, captures the flow of three individual springs.Since approx 14,500 years ago when the last vestiges of the great ice sheets still lingered in Northeastern Illinois, a perpetual spring has been flowing at this site. In 1843, five of the founding fathers of the city of Peoria Charles Oakley, Norman Purple, William Moss, Augustus O. Garrett and Lester O. Hurlbert were granted a charter by Illinois Governor, Thomas Ford, to establish the first water supply for the City of Peoria. A cave-like brick reservoir was built into the hillside to contain the three springs at the source and pipes were laid to carry the water as far as Hancock Street, about two miles away. The springs were the primary water source for the City of Peoria for approximately 15 years. At that time another water source was established near the Illinois river to meet the increasing demand for water caused by Peoria’s rapidly growing population. The overflow from the springs was used as a partial supply for Peoria’s historic goose lake, located just below the bluff. The springs are still free-flowing to this day.

According to a Peoria County trivia page, Goose Lake “designates the area formerly covered by a part time lake of that name along the foot of the bluff between Western Ave and Main St.”

The chain holding the door shut was just loose enough to allow me and my band of merry adventurers to stick my camera inside and light it up, revealing the arched brick ceiling and what appears to be about two feet of water, which I can confirm does infact still flow.

A plaque laid here reads:

Peoria Mineral Springs has been in exhistence some 14,500 years and is this area’s last link with prehistoric water sources. Located on Peoria’s historic West Bluff, the springs were the primary source for the first water supply for the City of Peoria. Governor Thomas Ford granted a charter February 20, 1843 for the establishment of this water supply. A reservoir was then built to contain the springs and pipers were laid to carry the water approximately two miles. At this time, Zealy Moss, Revolutionary War soldier, prominent citizen and owner of the property, built a home for himself on the property. The springs are still free flowing today.

This plaque placed by
Illinois State Organization
of the
National Society Daughters of the American Revolution
Mrs. Albert Triebel, Jr., State Regent
This Sixteenth day of March
Nineteen-Hundred Eighty-Three

If you are really want an adventure, visit this spot at midnight. According to Ghosts of America.com, its haunted: “The phantom of a young air force pilot is frequently spotted struggling to grip something down at Peoria Mineral Springs around midnight. In any event, it unquestionably is a frightening ghost that should be shunned.”

Proof that the water still flows: