The Peoria Armory- Bradley's home from 1925 thru 1949

[tornado]

The old Peoria Armory is soon to be no more...

It was the home of Bradley basketball from 1925 until the opening of the Fieldhouse on campus in 1949.
The Armory was still used for various purposes including dances, concerts, political rallies, etc. up til the 1970's but has sat mostly idle since then....incurring extensive water damage & deterioration.

In 2004 it was ruled condemned, unsafe for use and scheduled to be torn down.
Funds have generally been unavailable and an exhaustive attempt has been made to pursue the current owner of record to require him to pay, but finally the demolition process is underway.

Today a barrier/construction fence is going up around it and some time soon the actual work of bringing it down may begin....although the info I have is already 5-6 months old...

Here's a little story of the recent history...

http://www.peorian.com/history/1308-the-peoria-armory-waitng-to-die

But I did a little research and talked with a couple people at City Hall and found thru publically available records that the current owner of the structure (as of a few months ago) was Chase Ingersoll. Some might recall Chase Ingersoll as a Peoria lawyer who was prominent in local politics and other social issues - and without wasting a lot of time and space - he kinda got himself into a little trouble between the 1990's and early 2000's with some publicity stunts, lawsuits, and his ability to inject himself into every social issue (moreso even than Gary Sandberg) that was going on just to grab a few more headlines. He even ran a couple times for city council & mayor - unsuccessfully.

Chase Ingersoll finally got into a little more trouble than he wanted to deal with (LINK - LINK)

and he got entangled in lawsuits (LINK) and left town - but before he did, he bought the Armory in a bankruptcy sale and is still the owner of record ever since. (LINK)

I was told by a representative at City Hall (several months ago) that years of efforts to find Ingersoll have been unsuccessful and that he does not return calls or mail and has somewhat "vanished".

As recently as 2010 or 2011 he appears to have been a business owner in Michigan although I cannot confirm with 100% certainly that it is the same person- LINK (although his YouTube soliloquy sure does sound like him)
He did write a blog entry upon Gary Sandberg's death a couple years ago.

Anyway - I think this is all an interesting story and hope maybe even someone from a newspaper who might have more time, resources, and maybe have more connections to get some facts - can do a bit more research since this building is a BIG PART of Peoria's history and they haven't covered any of this process that's been going on for 15 years that will ultimately culminate soon in the Armory being torn down.

If there's anyone who knows more...feel free to contribute.

[Da Coach]

I've driven by the Peoria Armory many times over the years, and the deterioration has been steadily getting worse. The roof has caved in and if you look into any of the remaining windows, you see nothing but sky above. It is in a bad part of downtown, serves no purpose even if restored, and simply has no value. It would be cost-prohibitive to restore. It's too bad it was neglected and allowed to get so bad, but clearly demolition is the only thing feasible now.

[tornado]

For years I have had a desire to find a way to get entry and check out the basement, old lockerooms, etc to see if there are any remnants of it's past glory of of Bradley basketball...
Perhaps Squeaky Melchiorre's first tennis shoes stuck up somewhere in the rafters or an old game program with Chuck Orsborn on the cover or even just an old ripped up segment of the basketball court floor from the 1940's.
But now nobody but demolition crew are allowed anywhere close.


BTW - someone just sent me a link and it indicates that just maybe there's a new owner - as even Chase Ingersoll responds in the recent release saying...
"Congratulations. Hope it works out. She's lasted, because she was too expensive for the city to demo.
It is fallout shelter grade concrete and rebar, both interior and exterior.

The floor and roof are shot from water damage. There will be 1000s of lbs of pigeon crap to remove. Should be a 7 figure + project.

Whomever it is, best thing the city can do is confirm that the developer has he financing, which may involve historical preservation tax credits, and then get out of the developers way.

This news should make everyone's day."


so...maybe we might still be hearing more....

[tornado]

found this old story of the armory...scroll down about 1/2 on this page

http://www.geni.com/people/Melvin-Sieks/4032190

in 1940 a local team of basketball players set up a game in the Armory vs. the Globetrotters....who had only lost 3 games ever (147-3)..
and the locals beat them in Peoria

[tornado]

Now there's some talk that the old Armory won't be completely demolished...that just maybe there's an interested developer who might partition it and make it into housing & apartments....although the entire roof will need to be replaced and a vast amount of interior repairs needed.
I have serious doubts that this amount of work could be done, especially in this area of town and be able to get sufficient income from apartments to make it a feasible venture....that is of course unless some clueless governmental body as they always seem to do doesn't come along and hand over a ton of taxpayer money to someone who will get rich doing it then it will fail anyway .... like the Firefly venture

[Da Coach]

With the abandonment of downtown Peoria by Caterpillar, the current owner of the Peoria Armory now says he has abandoned his optimistic plans for a hotel, condos, and a theater incorporating the renovated Armory. As potential investment partners have pulled out, and the owner is running out of money, he now says he has 2 options-
One of his options is a scaled back development project, which is in limbo because the city can't seem to decide what to do with the Taft Homes across the street from the Armory (the city has been debating it for over 20 years). The other option is to turn the Armory into a non-profit project which would be used as "a community center for education, job training and athletics". But that would still require donors chip in millions to fund, which also seems highly unlikely in view of the city's uncertain plans for the deteriorating Taft Homes, the last remaining of the original Peoria subsidized housing projects (the Warner Homes and Harrison Homes are long gone, but plans to redevelop Taft Homes have been argued and debated for many years without much progress).

Phil Luciano has a column about the current state of the Peoria Armory.

http://www.pjstar.com/news/20170617/luciano-is-there-any-hope-left-to-revive-peoria-armory

IMO, it is likely that unless the City of Peoria gets involved in a major way, the Armory will not survive. Since the future of that part of the city seems to be a low priority for the city, maybe it is best to let the Armory die with dignity. And that's too bad.

[bradleyfan124]

Sadly I was not old enough to have enjoyed Bradley games at the Armory. I would like to go thru it one time before they tear it down. Maybe that's an idea: someone arrange a final tour for Bradley fans especially folks off here to go in and relish the memories of Bradley past

[Da Coach]

Sadly I was not old enough to have enjoyed Bradley games at the Armory. I would like to go thru it one time before they tear it down. Maybe that's an idea: someone arrange a final tour for Bradley fans especially folks off here to go in and relish the memories of Bradley past

The Luciano column has several photos of the interior. Scroll through them by clicking the arrow on the right of the photos. The balconies and some other features which were present in the 2006 photo, are now gone.-

http://www.pjstar.com/news/20170617/luciano-is-there-any-hope-left-to-revive-peoria-armory

[Chico]

Growing up we would walk past there to every Chief game at Woodruff Field. Then walk home to the Southside down Jefferson St. Never a problem. Don't think I'd try it now days.