PEORIA MAGAZINE January 2023

P E O R I A R E T R O

‘A PLACE FOR SPECIAL PEOPLE’ Dr. George Zeller revolutionized mental health care there, and ‘still watches over the place’

BY STEVE TARTER PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

M ost museums make it easy for visitors to drop by. But there aren’t any road signs directing you to the Peoria State Hospital Museum. GPS might not help much, either, since two different addresses are listed online. But many area residents knowwhere the Peoria State Hospital once stood. It was a big place in its day. You pass through Bartonville and peel off onto Pfeiffer Road. At the top of the hill is where the hospital once stood — 63 buildings sprawled over 200 acres. But

artifacts covering hospital history from 1902 to 1973, when the facility closed. The museum, which offers free admission from 2 to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, retains items that were put on display in the hospital’s early days while providing a reminder on how not to treat mental illness: restraining chairs, leather muffs, anklets, wristlets and canvas straitjackets. Christina Morris founded the mu seum in 2013. The Pekin resident, now 49, recalls first visiting the hospital

Portrait of Dr. George Zeller

that was a long time ago. Today, only 13 buildings remain. One of them houses the little museum with photos and

34 JANUARY 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE