16. OLD PEORIA PHOTOS

Ingersoll's final home in Peoria before moving with his wife and two daughters 
to Washington D.C. in the late 1870's.
With permission, this photo is from The Robert Ingersoll Birthplace Museum  in Dresden, New York.
(If you're a fan of Ingersoll, by all means consider chipping in a few dollars 
to keep their historic site up and running.)
This state-of-the-art mansion was originally located on the corner of Jefferson and Hamilton in Peoria, 
but was moved further mid-block when The National Hotel needed the corner location 
for its construction in 1883.

The National Hotel, 1883-1911 on the corner of Jefferson and Hamilton in Peoria.
 Ingersoll's former residence can be seen immediately adjacent to the hotel, on the right.
Image compliments of Janine Crandell of Illinois Ancestors.

Ruins of The National Hotel, due to fire in November of 1911. The former Ingersoll house next to it
was probably razed at that time. 
Image: Digitized by the Illinois Fire Service Institute for
IFLODD (Illinois Firefighter Line of Duty Deaths)
Illinois Digital Archives.Compliments of the Peoria Fire Department.

1960's photo of The New National Hotel, built mid-block rather than on the corner, 
begun in 1911 and demolished in 1970.
Hotel publicity at the time emphasized "new fireproof annex." 
A member of our Friends of Ingersoll group in the 1980's told me there was a plaque on the hotel 
commemorating Ingersoll with one of his quotes. The Friend told me, "That quote got me through WWII."
If anybody knows whatever happened to that plaque, or knows about that quote, please let me know!
Image compliments of  Peoria Historical Society Collection /Bradley University Library.



This is a rare, undated photo of Peoria's first County Courthouse, 
where Robert and his brother Ebon would have practiced 
prior to construction of the second courthouse in 1873. 
Photo compliments of  Peoria Historical Society Collection / Bradley University Library.

Peoria County Courthouse, 1873-1965. The block of buildings to the left, with the Illinois River in the background, is the 100 block N.E. Adams Street and is now the site of the Caterpillar World Headquarters. 
In the old days, it's likely that several of Ingersoll's law offices were located there.
To the right in the photo is the 300 block of S. Main Street, 
with a few of those same buildings currently having been preserved and restored.
Ingersoll would have conducted his legal cases in this courthouse in only the last few years of his residency in Peoria.
Image compliments of Janine Crandell of Illinois Ancestors.

This is how I remember downtown Peoria when I was a kid in the early '60's.  My family lived 30 miles away but we frequently drove to Peoria for shopping and special events.  This courthouse always struck me with such grandeur, that I honestly felt truly thrilled.  By contrast, the photo below depicts the current Peoria County Courthouse, for which the great old building had to be torn down.  You wouldn't think a child could be so forlorn at the loss of a building that was not even in her hometown.  But I never really got over missing entering Peoria and the feeling of the magnificence of its courthouse square. Compliments of CardCow.com

Current Peoria County Courthouse, 300 block S. Main. 
On the right a wing of Caterpillar Headquarters is seen.
Compliments of familysearch.org

Robert and his brother Ebon arrived in Peoria in 1857, and a City Directory four years later 
lists their law office at 55 S. Main, 
three rather long blocks from the courthouse, quite near the Illinois River 
and most likely flooded by the river several times a year!
Another source some years later has them "movin' on up" to the second floor of a corner office 
at Main & Adams, directly across from the Courthouse, (out of frame, on the left), 
far more convenient for trying their cases. 
Although the photo above is from 1888, almost 10 years after Ingersoll's departure for
Washington D.C., it's likely the corner building as depicted here 
was one of several Ingersoll law offices around the square over time. 
Currently, that address -- that entire block -- is occupied by Caterpillar World Headquarters.
Photo compliments of  Peoria Historical Society Collection / Bradley University Library.