Update: Demolished in 2017 after the owner defaulted on a loan to the City of Bartonville. The building’s stone was salvaged and sold off.
There are still several buildings left of the old Peoria State Hospital in Bartonville, which is just southwest of Peoria on the Illinois River. As seems to be common, the grounds have been converted into a TIF backed industrial park, and we saw a Coca-Cola distributorship among other small, light industries.
Opened in 1895, and with a building designed along the Kirkbride Plan (like St. Vincent’s in St. Louis), Illinois actually demolished the first structure due to structural problems.
The surviving administration building is in the Romanesque Revival style, with some classical details here and there.
A group is trying to restore the building, which was abandoned when the hospital closed in 1973.
The restoration group gives architectural tours during the day and ghost tours at night.
Apparently, a certain Dr. George Zeller pioneered the use of residential cottages, decentralizing patient and staff houses away from one massive building, as seen in Kirkbride buildings.
Part of the beauty of old, sturdy buildings like this is that they, at least from the outside, don’t fall apart very easily, despite 40+ years of abandonment.
Very cool! Hope they can save this!! Place is massive!
What’s the address
4400 Industry Drive, Bartonville, IL, but as I noted above, it’s been demolished, so there won’t be much to see.