Peoria Marriott Pere Marquette facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Pere Marquette Hotel
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2006, from the east, prior to restoration
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 Location in Peoria County, Illinois
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| Location | Peoria, Peoria County, Illinois, USA |
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| Area | 1 acre (0.40 ha) |
| Built | 1926 |
| Architect | Horace Trumbauer; Herbert Hewitt of Hewitt and Emerson |
| NRHP reference No. | 82002594 |
| Added to NRHP | August 12, 1982 |
The Peoria Marriott Pere Marquette is a very old and important hotel in Peoria, Illinois. It has 14 floors and was built in 1926. This hotel is special because it's the only fancy hotel from the 1920s still standing in Peoria. It was added to a list of important places, the National Register of Historic Places, in 1982.
Contents
Discovering the Hotel's Design
The main architect for the hotel was Horace Trumbauer from Philadelphia. He designed many famous buildings, including other fancy hotels. His ideas for the Pere Marquette were inspired by hotels like the Waldorf-Astoria.
A local architect named Herbert Hewitt also helped with the design. He was known for creating many big buildings in Peoria during that time.
What the Hotel Looks Like
The hotel building has fourteen stories and is mostly made of brick and stone. Its outside design looks very balanced and straight, which was a popular style back then.
Around the windows on the second floor, there are special stone decorations. At the very top of the building, there's a stone border called a cornice. This cornice has cool carvings of Native American faces and animals.
The hotel is right across the street from the Madison Theatre. It's also very close to Peoria City Hall. Both of these buildings are also on the National Register of Historic Places.
Inside the Hotel: Grand Rooms
When the hotel first opened, the first floor had a huge lobby and three large meeting rooms.
- The Cotillion Room was the hotel's main ballroom. It has a high, rounded ceiling, mirrors that look like French windows, and fancy plaster designs.
- The LaSalle Room and the Cheminee Lounge also had high ceilings with sparkling chandeliers.
- The lobby and the Cotillion Room once had beautiful paintings called murals by George Matthews Harding. The lobby mural showed Père Marquette arriving in Peoria. The Cotillion Room mural showed Sieur de La Salle leaving France.
The hotel has 288 rooms for guests to stay in.
A Look Back: Hotel History
People in Peoria started planning this hotel in 1924. Business leaders, led by Emmet C. May, wanted the city to have a top-notch hotel. They hired Horace Leland Wiggins to manage the new hotel.
How the Hotel Got Its Name
They even held a contest to pick the hotel's name! The winning name was Hotel Père Marquette. This name honors Jacques Marquette, a famous French priest and explorer. The person who suggested the name won $50.
Opening and Early Years
The hotel was finished in 1926 and cost about $2.5 million to build. It officially opened in January 1927. The designers were mostly from the East Coast, and the hotel looked like the luxurious hotels popular there in the 1920s.
At that time, the Pere Marquette was one of two main fancy hotels in Peoria. The other was the Jefferson Hotel. Today, the Pere Marquette is the only one still open.
Changes Over Time
The hotel had updates in 1954 and again in 1961. In 1972, it joined the Hilton Hotel chain and was called the Peoria Hilton. It was renovated and restored again in 1981. Later, the hotel left the Hilton chain and went back to its original name.
On August 12, 1982, the hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
In 2011, the Peoria City Council approved a big plan to close the hotel for a major renovation. It was closed on December 2, 2011, to become a full-service Marriott hotel. The hotel reopened in June 2013, looking brand new!
