Rock Island Depot and Freight House, Peoria Illinois
The Rock Island Depot in Peoria is the last remaining structure signifying the importance of the railroad in Peoria's history.
The opening of the Rock Island Depot in 1900 was attended by "throngs of populous." Peoria had been a true rail transportation center rivaled only by Chicago in the Midwest previous to the 1880's depression.
Railroads touched the lives of most Peoria citizenry as it was the only transportation link of consequence until expressways and air travel were established after World War II.
Familiar classical details were assembled to create a form identifiable as a Midwestern train station, using the classical arched windows below an Italianate bracketed overhang and the long, low profile which predates the Prairie Style of architecture.
Site Description
The Rock Island Depot was constructed in 1899-1900 at 32 Liberty Street, Peoria, Illinois. The railroad station consists of a two-story depot and an adjacent one-story Freight House built at the same time. The property on which the buildings are located is between a department store and the Illinois River.
The building is of bearing wall construction with timber and ironwork superstructure. Red brick with a recessed bonding course, occurring every seventh row, form quoins at the building's corners, and pilasters between major arched window openings. The entire first-level facade of the original clock tower is composed of this same brick coursing. The use of brick in this fashion is unusual and seems to substitute for the granite or other light-colored stone faces used as building material during the late 1800s. A low base of Ashley masonry encircles the entire building complex. The base is of Lake Superior sandstone.
A low-pitched clay tile roof with large bracketed overhang of Italianate character emphasizes the broad proportions of the lobby portion of the building.
A similar roof at a slightly lower level designates the office and baggage area, having a much shallower overhang without iron brackets. The narrow gabled roof of the waiting shed continues along one side of the building supported only by the brackets which terminate at the wall with stone corbels in the form of the railroad emblem. This shed continues for another 100 feet along the waiting platform, extending the horizontal appearance of the building. This shed is supported by square wood columns and brackets. At the original entrance to the Main Lobby from the waiting shed, the vestibule form was allowed to protrude through the lower roof of the shed and has its own stone-capped gable and a ball ornament at its peak.
This entrance, with a simple arched pediment, has been insensitively bricked in and an aluminum frame window added. The aforementioned ornament has also been lost.
The adjacent freight house has a low-pitched gable roof supported by King-post trusses of light wood and iron members. The roofing of the Freight House has been replaced with asphalt shingles. Some of the tiles were salvaged and stored for future use.
At the southwest corner of the office portion is the remaining lower third of a clock tower which was originally built to a height of 118 feet. Obviously impressed by its construction in 1900, a reporter for the Peoria Herald-Transcript said of the tower, " … while only sixteen feet square, the tower is embedded in a massive below-grade foundation 30 feet square and six feet thick." The tower's foundation held firm, but nature took its toll in another way on numerous occasions. According to Paul Stringham, who operated the newsstand at the Depot from 1933-1954, lightning struck the tower "a half dozen times", destroying parts and details with each blow. The upper portion of the symbolic tower was removed in 1939, terminated so as to be distinctive from the adjoining portion of the depot, and roofed with a low pyramidal form with tiles from an old freight house.
The placement of the tower at a corner of the elongated building seems to have precedence in the romantic notions of the late 1800's high Victorian styles and more specifically, with the Italian Villa style.
Probably due to the nature of the supporting walls, the entrance into the building through the tower is very narrow and flanked by two small windows not unlike the gunports of a fort. This arched opening is of extremely refined detail, including a broad band of radial tapered brick terminated by the raised brick drip ledge. The small windows, brick arched, and door opening are very palladium in form and, in this respect, relate to the distinctive and graceful arched windows that characterize the lobby. A simple arched glass fits above the flat stone lintel which is, in turn, supported on each side of the door by pilasters with simple stone capitals that face the door opening. That this elegant detailing surrounds the secondary entrance and that the tower itself is at the working end of the facility as opposed to the public entrance to the lobby, speaks of the incongruity associated with this picturesque style.
In 1948, the public portion of the station was remodeled in an insensitive but practical attempt to bring the aging building up to date with the "Rocket" trains which stopped at its platform. The elegance that had "struck the visitor at once" in 1900 was recorded in 1948 by the newspaper as "the erstwhile, dingy, half-century-old" depot. Wood frame windows of oak were replaced with steel sash and glass block. Oak benches, darkened with age, were retired for more comfortable "easy chairs." All the dark woodwork was covered over or removed, and the lower portions of the walls were paneled in "light-hued" paneling, and the upper walls painted in pastel green.
The adjacent Freight House is of the same brick as the Depot but is devoid of quoins and ornament except for a raised stepped brick pattern in the northeast gable. Windows are elongated as typical of Victorian proportions and have gently curved brick lintels. A deep overhang, again supported by brackets, continues along the entire south facade. This deep overhang lowers the apparent height of the Freight House and shades the wall from the intense heat of the summer sun. The trussed construction leaves the floor space free and clear for the storage of goods or for other activities requiring open space.
In 1965 a link was constructed between the Depot and the Freight House. It is of brick and is in keeping with the Freight House architecture.
North facade after tower was reduced to present height (1940)
North facade, waiting shed in foreground (1975)
Corner of Liberty and Water Streets (1975)
Freight House with Depot in background (1975)
South facade/lobby pavilion. Low roof is a link built to connect the Freight House with the main Depot when building was used as Training Center for the handicapped (1975)
Lobby pavilion river side (1975)
Southeast corner of lobby pavilion showing arched window and bracketed overhang (1975)
River side of the Freight House. Renovated arched doorway/ bracketed overhang (1975)
Arched doorway, west end at base of clock tower (1975)
The wood framed waiting shed and iron bracketed overhang. River boat in background (1975)
East end of Freight House with original lobby entrance to Depot in background. Waiting shed is to the right (1975)
Stone corbel in shape of Rock Island insignia (1975)
Interior Freight House showing King post trusses/iron strap ties (1975)
Freight House - King post truss (1975)
