PEORIA MAGAZINE November 2023

Peoria Heights once had a cable car

An aerial view of the former Pabst Brewery

The late, great Al Fresco Park

Downtown Peoria Heights along Prospect Road, circa 1940s-’50s

Prospect Road and Grandview Drive, the building was described as “picturesque” and “palatial.” Owner Charles Gray was known as a gracious host with many friends, but Ye Old Tavern fell victim to Prohibition. One evening, the place was raided by federal agents. The death knell came Nov. 20, 1920, when fire destroyed the tavern. AN INDUSTRIAL PAST At the time of the incorporation and re-incorporation of Peoria Heights, manufacturing was booming in the community. Between 1896-97, the Rouse and Hazard Company built a bicycle factory on the east side of Prospect Road, south of the Rock Island and Peoria railroad tracks, employing up to 150 people. Here the company manufactured the Sylph bicycle with the then-novel, easy-riding knee action, designed by Charles E. Duryea — yes, one of those Duryeas of automobile fame — of Wyoming, Illinois.

Monroe Seiberling built a factory on the southwest corner of Prospect Road and Seiberling Avenue in 1895-96, which housed the Peoria Rubber and Manufac turing Co., making bicycles and balloon tires. The balloon tires prompted Duryea to design a new bicycle, eliminating the knee action and introducing the first drop-frame-style bicycle, also known as a lady’s bicycle, which became quite popular. Here, the company also made 18 Duryea automobiles, the nation’s first gasoline-powered vehicles. Seiberling’s factory employed 600 people, making 10,000 bicycles and 25,000 pairs of tires a year. In about 1898, Seiberling and Duryea reportedly had a falling out and Duryea moved to Reading, Pennsylvania, where he con tinued to manufacture his automobile. The Smithsonian Institute has the first gasoline-powered automobile ever built in America, or more precisely, built in the Village of Peoria Heights. John B. Bartholomew took over the buildings at Prospect and Seiberling and

began assembling the Glide automobile. At full operation the plant’s yearly output was 175 cars and continued until World War I. After the war, Glide trucks were manufactured at the plant until 1920. WE WANT BEER, DOGGONIT The next industry to take up residence at Prospect and Seiberling was Premier Malt Products in 1924, making malt ose syrup used in cooking and home brewing. With the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the following year the Peoria Heights plant started brewing Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and ale. At peak production, the Pabst Brewery employed 1,000 people. Due to declining sales and money problems, the brewery was closed in 1982, putting 700 people out of work. The population of Peoria Heights in 1980, two years before Pabst shut down, was 7,453. Today the population of Peoria Heights is 5,800. “There was a mass exodus of people in the ‘80s

NOVEMBER 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE 93