Peoria,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Peoria from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Peoria was the earliest permanent European settlement in what is now Illinois; French explorers first established a presence along the Illinois River in the late 17th century, with the community later evolving into the modern city. The lands that eventually would become Peoria were first settled by Europeans in 1680, when French explorers René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle and Henri de Tonti constructed Fort Crevecoeur. This fort burned to the ground, and in 1813, Fort Clark, Illinois was built. When the County of Peoria was organized in 1825, Fort Clark was officially named Peoria.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Peoria’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewHartmann Center for Performing Ar…, 1907: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Peoria, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Spaldings Floating Palace ad 1857 (1857) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (12). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.