Four Corners: East Peoria formerly known as Bluetown
By Frank Borror / East Peoria Historical Society President
Posted Jun 14, 2016 at 3:50 PM
Bluetown is considered to be the beginning of East Peoria although it was the third subdivision recorded in what is now the City of East Peoria, following Cleveland in 1836 and Fondulac in 1855.
It was laid out in February of 1864 by William C. Cleveland, Tazewell County Surveyor, for Joseph Schertz and his siblings on part of the undivided land inherited from their father David Schertz.
The subdivision was filed with the Tazewell County recorder on April 1, 1864. David had arrived in Peoria in 1831 from his home in Alsace-Lorraine, France.
In the spring of 1832, Schertz and his family left Peoria and purchased a claim on the east side of the river. They are purported to have settled in an abandoned log cabin they found on their newly acquired land and began farming. Schertz patent 160 acres of land consisting of the southeast quarter of section thirty-three of what is now Fondulac Township on Dec. 9, 1835. Bluetown contained 31 lots, two parcels and four streets — Peoria, Bloomington, Vine and Sycamore. The subdivision stretched from where the recently razed Central Junior High building stood, to and including where East Peoria Autobody sits today and was two blocks wide. The main road was Peoria Street coming from Four Corners, crossing Farm Creek and continuing on to the town of Washington. This street is now named Washington Street and in Bluetown ran in front of the school where Taylor Street is today.
After the construction of Interstate 74 and the rerouting of Washington Street, the only remaining remnants of Bluetown are lots one through four occupied by East Peoria Autobody and Motel 6 and lots seven though nine occupied by two homes and Web Tech Services and the two parcels occupied by Super Gyros and Farrell’s Extreme Bodyshaping.
There have been several theories about why the town was called Bluetown. One was that homes built in the marshy area were painted with a blue paint that deterred corrosion, another was that many of the homes were owned by a mining company who bought a quantity of blue paint and painted all of its workers’ homes blue and thirdly that the residents of Alsace, where Joseph Schertz was born, always wore blue smocks. This compiler offers a fourth possibility: The Schertz family originated in a small community in Alsace-Lorraine named Bühl that owes its name to its picturesque site on the Bühele hill. It is this compiler’s belief that Joseph Schertz and his father intended to name the town Bühltown but the surveyor mistook Mr. Schertz accent laden English to be Bluetown.
The Bluetown Post Office was established May 21, 1864, with Lawrence W. Kitchen as the first postmaster. The post office name was changed to Hilton on Feb. 3, 1869, and on March 25, 1869, the Illinois State Legislature officially changed the name of Blue Town (sic) to Hilton. No record of why the post office and location were named Hilton can be found, but it is generally accepted that they were named for the nearby Hilton Coal and Iron Mining Company. Meanwhile, Almiron Cole, subdivided a portion on his landholdings that lay between Four Corners and Bluetown. This subdivision, in the name of Coleville, was created on May 8, 1866. The two communities continued to grow and on July 1884, the residents of Bluetown and Coleville incorporated as the Village Hilton. A vote of 30 to 12 established the first incorporated village where East Peoria now stands and in October 1889, the name was changed to the Village of East Peoria. Bluetown itself was never heavily developed and in 1888 the Lake Erie & Western railway was extended from Bloomington to Peoria, constructed by J. B. Wright and Company. The railway absorbed all or part of 10 lots in Bluetown, most of which were owned by Christian Mosiman. The 1891 Atlas of Tazewell County shows structures on 14 of Bluetowns 31 lots. In 1911 the Mosiman family sold all of the lots south of the railway to the Dooley brothers and a spur was constructed from the L.E.&W. Railway to the Dooley Brothers Coal Mine. When the Illinois Traction System was constructed in 1906 the railway company purchased parts of Bluetown lots one and two and erected the Urbandale Station at that point.
East Peoria’s municipal water system was established on March 12, 1915, with a contract issued to Public Service Company of Omaha. The well and pumping station were located on parcel one where Gyros sits today. The original water pump that was housed in the pumping station has been meticulously restored by John Broshears and is displayed as an historic artifact in the Levee District.
In the 1930s, Morton Road that intersected with Washington Street at lot 10 became Bloomington Road and Bloomington Street became Flora Street.
Compiled April 2016 by Frank Borror
The East Peoria Historical Society is located at 324-326 Pekin Ave. It is dedicated to the collection and preservation of local history. If anyone has any information or pictures regarding East Peoria they would share with the community please contact Frank Borror at 696-9227.
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