Peoria ( ) is a city in Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. Located on the Illinois River, the city had a population of 113,150 as of the 2020 census, making it the eighth-most populous city in Illinois. It is the principal city of the Peoria metropolitan area in Central Illinois, consisting of Fulton, Marshall, Peoria, Stark, Tazewell, and Woodford counties and had a combined population of 402,391 in 2020.
Established in 1691 by the French explorer Henri de Tonti, Peoria is the oldest permanent European settlement in Illinois, according to the Illinois State Archaeological Survey. The city received its current name when the County of Peoria was organized in 1825 and was named after the Peoria people, a member of the Illinois Confederation. On October 16, 1854, Abraham Lincoln made his Peoria speech against the Kansas–Nebraska Act. Before the onset of Prohibition in 1920, Peoria was a major center of the American whiskey industry, with more than a dozen distilleries operating in the city by the late 19th century—a greater concentration than in any other U.S. city at that time.
A major port on the Illinois River, Peoria is a trading and shipping center for a large agricultural area that produces corn, soybeans, and livestock. While Peoria’s economy is diversified, manufacturing—including heavy machinery, agricultural equipment, metal products, and chemical production—continues to play an important role. Until 2018, Peoria was the global and national headquarters for heavy equipment and engine manufacturer Caterpillar Inc., one of the 30 companies composing the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and listed on the Fortune 100; the company relocated its headquarters to Deerfield, Illinois, in 2018, and then Irving, Texas, in 2022.
The city is associated with the phrase "Will it play in Peoria?", which may have originated from the vaudeville era and is often spuriously attributed to Groucho Marx. Museums in the city include the Peoria Riverfront Museum, the Pettengill–Morron House and the John C. Flanagan House (both of which are managed by the Peoria Historical Society), and the Peoria Playhouse Children's Museum. Wheels o' Time Museum is near Peoria.
History
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.Peoria Illinois History . peoria.com. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
Peoria was named after the Peoria tribe, a member of the Illinois Confederation; linguistic scholars have proposed an origin in Proto-Algonquian meaning “to dream with the help of a manitou,” but the etymology remains uncertain.Scheetz, George H. "Peoria." In Place Names in the Midwestern United States. Edited by Edward Callary. (Studies in Onomastics; 1.) Mellen Press, 2000. A 21st-century proposal suggests a derivation from a Proto-Algonquian word meaning "to dream with the help of a manitou."Edward Callary, Place Names of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2009), p. 273. Peoria was incorporated as a village on March 11, 1835. The city did not have a mayor, though they had a village president, Rudolphus Rouse, who served from 1835 to 1836. The first Chief of Police, John B Lishk, was appointed in 1837. The city was incorporated on April 21, 1845. This was the end of a village president and the start of the mayoral system, with the first mayor being William Hale. Peoria, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, was named after Peoria, Illinois because the two men who founded it in 1890 − Joseph B. Greenhut and Deloss S. Brown − wished to name it after their hometown.
Peoria was significant in the world of bicycle racing during the late 19th century. Held at Lake View Park, its U.S. bicycle racing stop hosted such notable names as Marshall "Major" Taylor, who became world champion. Taylor described Peoria as the "Mecca" for the sport. For much of the 20th century, Peoria hosted a red-light district of brothels and bars known as the Merry-Go-Round. Richard Pryor got his start as a performer on North Washington Street in the early 1960s.
In 2021, Rita Ali became Peoria's first female and African American mayor. Though it had been named one of the fastest-shrinking cities as recently as 2021, later in the 2020s, Peoria became notable for its trend of urban gentrification — still a rarity in many midsized Midwestern cities. TikTok user Angie Ostazewski was profiled in the New York Times after being credited with convincing upwards of 300 people to relocate to Peoria, using her profile to advertise the city's dining and arts scene and low-priced, historic housing.
Notable events September 19 to October 21, 1813 – Peoria War 1844 – Abraham Lincoln came to Peoria to get involved in the Aquilla Wren divorce case and took it to the Supreme Court of Illinois April 15, 1926 – Charles Lindbergh's first air mail route, Contract Air Mail route #2, began running mail from Chicago to Peoria to Springfield to St. Louis and back.Contract Air Mail Route No.2: Chicago − Peoria − Springfield − St. Louis . Includes images of Peoria-addressed and Peoria-postmarked postcards. Retrieved January 13, 2007. There is nothing to substantiate the local legend that Lindbergh offered Peoria the chance to sponsor his trans-Atlantic flight and call his plane the "Spirit of Peoria," but he does state that he first pondered the journey after taking off from the Peoria air mail field. 1942 – Penicillium chrysogenum, the fungus originally used to industrially produce penicillin, was first isolated from a moldy cantaloupe found in a grocery store in Peoria. Local legend is that Theodore Roosevelt called Grandview Drive, a street on the bluffs overlooking the Illinois River "the world's most beautiful drive" during his visit in 1910. However, no contemporaneous accounts of this story appeared, even in local papers and histories, for over two decades after it supposedly occurred. A related legend claims that the Peoria radio station and CBS television affiliate, WMBD, chose its call sign based on this story. In fact, the WMBD letters were assigned randomly and the meaning behind it was invented after the fact in 1927.
Geography
According to the 2010 census, Peoria has a total area of , of which (or 95.58%) is land and (or 4.42%) is water.
Climate Peoria has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa), with cold, snowy winters, and hot, humid summers. Monthly daily mean temperatures range from to . Snowfall is common in the winter, averaging , but this figure varies considerably from year to year. Precipitation, averaging , peaks in the spring and summer, and is the lowest in winter. Extremes have ranged from in January 1884 to in July 1936.
Demographics
2020 census +Peoria, Illinois – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 2000Pop 2010Pop 2020% 2000% 2010% 2020White alone (NH)77,13869,45460,36468.30%60.39%53.35%Black or African American alone (NH)27,78330,70531,21324.60%26.70%27.59%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)2072332290.18%0.20%0.20%Asian alone (NH)2,6035,2147,1842.30%4.53%6.35%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)3127420.03%0.02%0.04%Other race alone (NH)2302415860.20%0.21%0.52%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)2,1053,5055,6331.86%3.05%4.98%Hispanic or Latino (any race)2,8395,6287,8992.51%4.89%6.98%Total112,936115,007113,150100.00%100.00%100.00%
According to the 2021 American Community Survey, Peoria's poverty rate was 19.7 percent. Median household income was estimated to be 53,568 in 2022. Population was estimated to have decreased approximately 1.9% from 113,176 to 111,021 between 2020 and 2022. According to 24/7 Wall St, in 2018 Peoria ranked as the 5th worst city for Black Americans based on income, educational, and unemployment disparities between Black and white residents.
2010 Census As of the census of 2010, there were 115,021 people and 47,202 households residing in the city. The population density was . There were 52,621 housing units. The racial makeup of the city was 62.4% White, 26.9% Black or African American, 0.3% Native American, 4.6% Asian, and 3.6% of mixed races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.9% of the population. The city has a sizable, established Lebanese population with a long history in local business and government.
There were 45,199 households, out of which 29.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.6% were married couples living together, 15.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.5% were non-families. Individuals made up 33.2% of all households, and 11.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 3.04.
The age distribution of city population was the following: 25.7% under the age of 18, 12.0% from 18 to 24, 27.2% from 25 to 44, 20.8% from 45 to 64, and 14.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 89.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.0 males. The median income for a household in the city was $36,397. The per capita income for the city was $20,512. Some 18.8% of the population was below the poverty line.
Economy
Industry Peoria's first major industry was started in 1830 by John Hamlin and John Sharp, who constructed the flour mill on Kickapoo Creek.Ballance, Charles (1870). The History of Peoria, Illinois, pp. 127-28. N.C. Nason. In 1837, another industry was begun with E.F. Nowland's pork packing industry. Many other industries started slowly in Peoria including carriage factories, pottery makers, wholesale warehousing, casting foundries, glucose factories, ice harvesting, and furniture makers. Peoria became the first world leader for distilleries thanks to Andrew Eitle (1837), Almiron S. Cole (1844), and Joseph B. Greenhut.Ballance (1870), pp. 135-36. Between 1837 and 1919, Peoria held over 24 distilleries and 73 breweries. Together, they produced the highest amount of internal revenue tax on alcohol (also known as 'Sin Tax') of any single revenue district in the entire United States; as much as 50% of tax revenue during the Civil War came from Peoria's district, largely due to distilleries and breweries. Peoria also was one of the major bootlegging areas during Prohibition and home to the famed mobsters, the Shelton brothers. That great success placed Peoria into a building boom of beautiful private homes, schools, parks, churches, as well as municipal buildings.
In addition to the distilleries came farm machinery manufacturing by William Nurse in 1837. Also, two men called Toby and Anderson brought the steel plow circa 1843, which gained immediate success. The dominant manufacturing companies in Peoria were Kingman Plow Co., Acme Harvester Co., Selby, Starr & Co., and Avery Manufacturing Co. In 1889, Keystone Steel & Wire developed the first wire fence and has since been the nation's leading manufacturer.