Name This Peoria Landmark

A very popular and photogenic landmark…

I knew JW would come through for me with a little history:

“I believe, tho I’m always usually mostly wrong about everything, that this is the pergola, built in 1919, then redone sometime in the 1950’s, when the brickwork was added and it was made smaller than the original, which was 100 feet by 15 feet with center dome 20 feet high.”

I can only find one reference in the book The Grandest Views: “Another of man’s touches was the construction of a wooden pergola completed in 1919. It was “a beautiful structure 100 feet long by 15 feet in width, with a dome in the center over 20 feet in height.” The wooden lattice deteriorated, but the open-aired center portion still peeks out from behind the Ingersoll monument.”

David: “And they recently gained back a little ground against the graffiti that was all over the white columns so hooray for that. My only hope is that the darn thing doesn’t fall over anytime soon – the wood has seen better days.”

Sara Partridge was quoted in the Journal Star with this little tidbit: “On the hill going up from Perry Street there is a pergola. At one time, it was very, very photographed. It is now falling apart”

Peoria Historic Preservation Commissioner Paul Day, in the same Journal Star article said this: “In making several trips through the park since this came up, I see the pergola behind the Ingersoll statue is really deteriorated. It’s now that the structure needs to be repaired and saved.”

I can honestly say I didn’t get close enough to inspect it, infact, I didn’t even get out of my car, but I’m getting the urge to check it out a little closer now.