Peoria, Bloomington/Normal and Champaign/Urbana

Checking out Illinois's Major Central Cities

Peoria

Peoria Heights water tower

I gave myself a little driving tour through town just to try to get a feel for the place.  Peoria lies on ground that rises gradually from near river level up to a bluff; the main street for this route is Prospect Drive, and the Village of Peoria Heights is at the top.  Also at the top is Tower Park, named for the 500,000 gallon water tower that they've cleverly made into a tourist destination.  It has an exterior glass elevator that takes folks up 200' to three observation decks that claim a 20-mile view on a clear day.

Along the way through the business district, restaurants have set out sidewalk tables in an interesting way: they've each co-opted the 2 parking spaces in front of their doors and built a 1- to 3-sided half-wall to enclose their table spaces.  The half-walls serve the varied purposes of defining their areas, setting an atmosphere, and protecting the diners from idiots who would persist in trying to park there anyway.  I saw at least 10 restaurants that had done this within the space of a few blocks.

Illinois River, as seen from Grandview Drive

Peoria's crown jewel, apparently, is Grandview Drive, built in 1903 along the bluff overlooking the Illinois River.  When Pres. T. Roosevelt visited here in 1910, he called it "the world's most beautiful drive."  I don't know about "most" beautiful, but it's really pretty.  Of course much of it is lined with very fancy houses, but much of it is parkland with benches and picnic tables.

sample residence along the drive

you can see a long way from Grandview Drive

The river bed here used to belong to the Mississippi River until a glacial bully shoved it farther west.  This sign gives some interesting geological information.

guardian of the entrance's left side

on the right of the entrance

The house where I saw these statues had 2 entrances, one on either side of a curve in the road.  One entrance was guarded by a pair of very attractive and unusually posed lions.  But this entrance was special, as you can see.  I especially like the champagne flute on the plinth of the left guardian.  Couldn't tell what repairs were happening to the one on the right.

A drive through town makes it clear the local economy is dependent on Caterpillar which, until last year, had its world headquarters here and still has several manufacturing plants here.

Two of Peoria's well-known native sons are Richard Pryor and Dan Fogelberg.  Pryor has a statue in his honor and Fogelberg has an honorary parkway and memorial.

Peoria, with a population of 115,000, is home to minor league baseball and football teams, with fancy stadiums in downtown for them.

With the variation in ground levels and site on the river, I found Peoria a pleasant city.  Several people I talked to in East Peoria, though, told me they were glad to live there rather in Peoria which, they said, was too big.


Bloomington/Normal
The cities of Bloomington and Normal (that really is its name) are smack on top of each other and it's impossible for a non-resident like me to tell where one stops and another begins.  Combined, they have a population of 130,000 - decent-sized but not as large as I expected.

One of them has a primary road called Gregory Street.

Illinois State University is not in Bloomington, as I'd thought, but instead is in Normal.  It was founded in 1857 as Illinois State Normal University, and is the state's oldest college.

I didn't stop to take photos, which I'm now regretting because I'm having a really hard time finding any online.  Apparently even Bloomington residents don't bother taking local photos.  So I'll tell you that the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, a historic landmark, is gorgeous, the McLean County Museum of History is impressive, and a place called the Illinois House is stunning.

Illinois House

Actually I did manage to scrape up a photo of that last one.  It was built in 1902, following a fire that had wrecked the previous building, restored in 1977, and is now used as an office building, primarily for real estate companies.  Can you see the amazing beveled glass in those huge arched windows?  The glass must be 1902-original.  Nobody would make those now.


Champagne/Urbana
Champagne itself has 86,000 residents, but the population for the entire urban area is 232,000 - much larger than I'd expected.  And I'm not sure where they all are because the main area of town I drove through didn't seem particularly large.

I saw a lot of sidewalk tables outside restaurants as I drove through town and it seemed a prosperous area.

The University of Illinois actually straddles the city limits of the 2 primary towns of Champagne and Urbana, which is why you always hear the 2 names combined when folks talk about the school.

I'm afraid I don't really have anything much to say about this area because I honestly didn't see much, and I'm not sure why.  I thought where I was driving was the primary route through the center of town but, if so, then there's not much there, though there must be some reason why nearly a quarter million people would live in the area.  Weird.