As the sun began to set on Friday evening before the Fourth of July, I captured these photographs of my family’s farm in Deer Creek Township, east of Peoria.
Pleasantview Road, July 2021
It seems like a lot has changed on Pleasantview Road in the two years since I last visited. Besides the house I’d been photographing for over a decade having vanished, I feel like there are other buildings missing, as well. Above, the farm above looks abandoned. Below, the school, which I’ve looked at multiple times…
Moses Montefiore Synagogue, Revisited
I knew in my short visit to Bloomington-Normal that there was one place that I had to check up on, and I was pleasantly surprised! The former Moses Montefiore Synagogue has been purchased and renovated into what I believe, according to newspaper reports, a new community space. If the article proved true, it was renovated…
West Market Street, Bloomington, Illinois
The fortunes of many a street in America is determined by the assigning of numbers on a shield. In this case, for West Market Street in Bloomington, Illinois, it was assigned US Highway 150, probably sometimes around or after 1926, and its fate has been tied to that designation since that time. Heavy through traffic…
Details, Busch Mausoleum
I’ve done details of the Wainwright and Lemp mausolea in the past, so I turned to the Busch Mausoleum next. The famous phrase by Gaius Julius Caesair, Veni, Vedi, Vici, was spoken after his defeat of Pharnaces II of Pontus, not during the conquest of Gaul, as is commonly misunderstood.
More Demolition, Queeny Tower
Update: See the progress of demolition in mid-August of 2021 and was complete by October. The demolition of the Queeny Tower is proceeding, and when I stopped by on the last Saturday of June, the Caterpillars were working away moving debris around. Part of the top of the tower is clearly gone, and they are working…
James Cool Papa Bell Collapses
When I heard about the collapse of a building on the Near North Side, I went and checked old posts to see if I could figure out which building the news was talking about. The street in question, the 2700 block of James ‘Cool Papa’ Bell Avenue, has deteriorated so badly since I first took…
Former Wagoner Place Methodist Church, In Ruins
The former Wagoner Place Methodist Church collapsed into a giant pile of rubble, which frankly surprised me. On my first and only previous visit, it looked perfectly fine, and I didn’t see any reason why it would structurally fail so spectacularly. I guess, looking back at my old photographs, that if you examine the eaves,…
Cote Brilliante Avenue, Early Summer 2021
I find the long block of Cote Brilliante Avenue between Marcus and Euclid avenues one of the enigmas: filled with beautiful houses but at the same time embodying the troubles afflicting so many North Side neighborhoods. The overgrowth has grown up due to the wet spring and the hot temperatures of the early summer. I…
Aldine Place, Early Summer 2021
It had been awhile since I had checked up on the block of Aldine Place just east of North Kingshighway Boulevard. Needless to say, there has been some major landscaping! I had seen a huge cloud of smoke hovering over the area last weekend. I first examined this block in 2013 and then again in…