The Street Unveiled
Build The Block supporters and the press recently were treated to their first look at the future of Peoria’s past: The Street.
Dedicated to showcasing the region’s extensive history, The Street is the first component of the planned Peoria Riverfront Museum to be unveiled to the public. In a September 29 press conference at the historic Hotel Pere Marquette, representatives of The Museum Collaboration Group shared floor plans and details of the history gallery to be housed within the museum’s Washington Street Wing.
“Peoria has a great story,” said Museum Collaboration Group co-Chairperson Brad McMillan. “We need to remember it, celebrate it and, most importantly, pass it on to future generations.”
Changing Themes
“History doesn’t change, but The Street will,” said Peoria Historical Society Board President Marilyn Leyland. “In addition to regular features, changeable themed portions will keep The Street continually fresh, starting with the initial concept of ‘Pride of Peoria,’ emphasizing the region’s innovation and entrepreneurship.”
The Street will include a nearly life-size streetscape that integrates real objects from Peoria’s past, oversize graphics, text and interactives. An interpretive timeline of the area’s history and stories unique to Peoria will populate the streetscape. Anchoring the area will be a massive video projection and large-scale artifacts supporting the current theme.
“I guarantee you the region’s history will surprise, educate and entertain you,” said Leyland. She shared fascinating facts visitors might learn while visiting The Street. “Did you know a moldy cantaloupe in Peoria was responsible for the mass production of penicillin?” she asked, revealing the moldy melon was brought to Peoria’s “Ag Lab” by a local housewife during a worldwide search for a strain of penicillin that could be mass-produced. The resulting antibiotic saved untold lives.
Leyland also noted that Peoria was the whiskey capital of the world at the turn of the last century, with distilleries here producing 185,000 gallons of alcohol every 24 hours and distillers paying more than $23 million in “sin taxes” in 1892.
“And on any given day in The Street, you might run into important people from the past,” said Leyland as she introduced John Parks of the Peoria Regional Museum Society. Parks had come in character as inventor Charles Duryea to announce that the society would donate to The Street an 1898 Duryea Peoria Motor Trap automobile invented 110 years ago in a garage on West Barker Avenue, along with $40,000 for maintenance and exhibits explaining the vehicle’s history.
Oral History Center
Another multifaceted element of The Street will be an Oral History Center. “Oral history has been an especially important tradition in the African-American community,” said Margie White, representing the Peoria African American Hall of Fame Museum (AAHFM).
White announced the center will feature photos, artifacts and an oral history “jukebox” of recordings of and about memorable Peoria-area residents—from Bradley University founder Lydia Moss Bradley to American television’s first religious broadcaster Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. Visitors who are inspired to capture their own stories for future generations will have that opportunity in the exhibit’s Story Booth, leaving with a DVD of their recording.
A third area within the Oral History Center, The Wall of Fame, will honor individuals inducted into the AAHFM each year for having made an outstanding contribution to the Peoria African-American community.
Dominic Nimpson, president of The Caterpillar African American Network,an affinity group within Caterpillar that supports African-American employees, presented the Museum Collaboration Group with a check for $12,500 on behalf of the AAHFM. “We feel the education of our young people through role models is very, very important to them becoming good citizens,” said Nimpson.