M
assive and powerful in structure and
design, the Peoria Armory at 523 N.
Adams St. is a building waiting to die.
In 2004, Judge John Barra ruled in favor of
a demolition order for the building. Estimates
were that it would take $1.2 million dollars
to repair the rotted open roof and $500,000 to
safely secure the sagging balcony and ravaged
caved-in floor areas. Firefighters estimate the
basement has at least two feet of water in it at
all times.
To demolish the building would cost around
$300,000 and no one has put forward the
money yet to accomplish the task.
The Armory is a building with some of the
richest history in the city, yet now is aban-
doned, neglected and devoid of all civic pride
it once held.
Constructed in 1925 by the Military and
Naval Department of Illinois, the Armory was
the Civic Center of its era. It was the home to
Bradley Basketball from 1925 until 1950 when
the Bradley Fieldhouse was built. Bradley fans
packed the 4,600 seats.
In 1939, State Sen. Tom Madden proposed
a bold building plan to enlarge the Armory to
10,000
seats, but World War II intervened and
plans were dropped.
The Armory held hundreds of conventions,
political rallies, circuses and boxing matches.
Big Bands shook the rafters. Eddie Cantor
brought his national radio show there for a
time. Eleanor Roosevelt rallied Peoria to pre-
pare for World War II there. President Lyndon
Johnson’s most triumphant reception in Peoria
happened there in 1964.
The Armory’s demise began in 1978 when
plans were prepared to build a new armory
on Route 116 near the airport. Various plans
emerged through the years to utilize the build-
ing, most notably from the Peoria Park District
in the 1990s when they proposed building a
new health complex on the site of Taft Homes
and arching over Adams Street to connect to
the massive Armory for multiple basketball
courts and other gym components.
Like many landmark buildings that once
graced our city, the Armory is just left to the
historians to keep its legacy alive.
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