PEORIA MAGAZINE March 2023

SEED AND SOIL

BRIDGING THE RURAL/ URBAN DIVIDE For nearly 120 years, Kelly Seed in Downtown Peoria has met the planting needs of farmers and city dwellers alike

BY STEVE TARTER PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

W hen Doug Oberhelman pledged in 2015 that Caterpillar would build a new headquarters in Downtown Peoria, the first thing the CEO did was to reassure the enthusiastic crowd in attendance that Kelly Seed would stay put this time. Indeed, in one of those footnotes of Peoria history, Kelly Seed was displaced from its original Washington Street location back in 1964 by – guess who? – Caterpillar and its then-new headquarters.

(L to R) Matt Church, co-owner, Steve Church, president, and Nick Vespa, co-owner and manager of Kelly Seed

and Hardware Co., 202 Hamilton Blvd

8 MARCH 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE