I stumbled upon this Catholic church in downtown Peoria when I was visiting nearby. The parish dates from 1878 but the current church is from 1903.
While it’s known as the Sacred Heart of Jesus, when looking at the cornerstone, it says Herz Jesu Kirche, so I will assume it was a German national church originally. Today, the church serves downtown office workers.
There are a whole host of different saints located in the arcade above the front portal, which is in the Romanesque Revival.
We see that same architectural phenomenon that we witness in St. Louis, where the architectural ornament of the church is in the Romanesque yet the massing of the building is the Gothic Revival.
The interior is sumptuous, which is something that seems to run with Catholic churches in the Peoria diocese. We’ve seen that as well at St. Mark’s up the hill and in the cathedral.
The vaults are groin vaults, which are Gothic Revival.
The windows are small, as is fitting for a Romanesque church.
A large organ fills much of the choir loft.
Not a large organ — When it was built by Hinners Organ Company in 1912, it had only 11 ranks of pipes. It was rebuilt and electrified about 1950, but abandoned within 20 years, as electronic instruments have been used since about 1970. Rebuilding was mooted around 2005, but that plan was abandoned, and the instrument was replaced by an electronic in 2008.
“You-mean”..”Henry-Hobson-Richardson”..
“ROMANESQUE”..”REVIVAL?”… |:<)