(rshsdepot) East Peoria, IL

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

Old Train Station to Be Razed in East Peoria, Ill.
Peoria Journal Star

Apr. 22--EAST PEORIA, Ill.--To some, it's just an old building standing in
the way of progress. But for Paul Stringham, it's a reminder of an extensive
train system that once connected Peoria with downstate.
The brick structure on Washington Street close to the Illinois River, the
longtime office for Illini Brick & Supply, will soon be razed to make way
for a riverfront hotel to be built at the site in East Peoria.

"We would have liked to have moved that building but it's just too solid. We
would have had to cut it in half just to get it out of there," said East
Peoria Mayor Chuck Dobbelaire.

Bob Taylor, Illini Brick and Supply co-owner who worked in the building for
33 years, cited the building's glazed tile walls and terrazzo floor as
evidence of the soundness of the structure. "I tried getting up the floor
but it's anchored in there. I gave up," he said.

The solid little station house served Illinois Terminal Co. customers from
1951 to 1955, the last area stop for electric rail service before the system
folded statewide.

Before that, the interurban station was in downtown Peoria at 542 SW Adams
St., longtime home of the Peoria Police Department and now the Peoria
Election Commission.

Stringham, 90, has more than a passing knowledge of the area's railroad
history. His book, "Illinois Terminal: the Electric Years," published in
1992, details the history of the service, including a number of photos he
took himself.

He differentiates between the many rail options Peoria citizens once had at
their disposal. Streetcars ran throughout the city until 1946 while train
service such as the Rock Island Railroad connected Peoria and Chicago until
1981.

And there was an interurban system that offered electric train service
between Peoria and other downstate communities from 1907 to 1955.

Not every state had an interurban system like the one in Illinois. "The
Midwest had a number of good systems. Indiana and Ohio probably had the most
(lines). Illinois Terminal was successful because it became a freight
system," said Ed Gentry, a railroad enthusiast in St. Joseph, Mo. "You had
interurbans in New England and out west. They kind of skipped the south," he
said.

Gentry said the interurbans represented a short but glorious chapter in
American transportation history. "At the turn of the century, when Henry
Ford sought financing for his automotive business, bankers laughed at him.
'We're putting our money in electric railroads,' they hold him," he said.

History shows that not only did Ford get funding but the automotive era his
Model T helped launch did in most of the nation's electric railways.

But Stringham recalls the interurban fondly. "(Illinois Terminal trains)
were pretty well used until 1954. Up to then they had six trains out and six
back every day. Then they cut it back to three trips a day, then one. A year
later, the service ended," said Stringham.

Illinois Terminal, formerly known as Illinois Traction Co., connected Peoria
with such towns as Morton, Mackinaw, Bloomington, Springfield, Decatur,
Champaign and St. Louis.

What made the service unique was it made unscheduled stops as well, said
Dale Jenkins, president of the Illinois Traction Society in Decatur. "When
the interurban negotiated for a right-of-way with farmers and landowners,
they agreed to stop right there on the property," he said.

"The crew got to know passengers on a first-name basis. It was kind of like
Hooterville -- everybody knew everybody. It was a great service and a very
personal one," said Jenkins, whose own history on the line will be published
later this year. "You had polished mahogany and stained glass in a lot of
the cars. Plus, there was always great service," he said.

It was the four-hour trip to St. Louis from Peoria that Stringham remembers
fondly. "When the IT cars got out in the country, they made good time. They
could travel 70 miles an hour," he said.

The price was right, too. "It was $1.50 for a roundtrip ticket between
Peoria and St. Louis in 1940," he said.

Stringham, paying a final visit to the old East Peoria station last week,
recalled he took the last train to St. Louis from the station in June 1955.
"I think the ticket price was $3.50," he said.


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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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