THE OCTAGONAL TABERNACLE

                         THE  OCTAGONAL  TABERNACLE

                                    NORMAN  V.  KELLY

 

I hope this odd title does not keep the typical ASO reader away from reading this article.  An Octagonal Tabernacle…what the hell is that?  Well, I am glad you posed that question. I never heard of it myself until I was researching the Peoria visits of John Phillip Sousa. I found out that he was here in 1895 and had his two concerts in the Tabernacle.  The truth is that the building, an eight-sided wooden structure was one of the most important structures ever built here in Peoria, Illinois as far as religion and entertainment was concerned.  The building was later surpassed but until 1905 it was king.   It was a massive place, with a huge dirt floor covered with sawdust, and had the capacity to seat 7,000 people.  Several local churches got together, raised the money and hired Albert Coleman as the contractor. Of course, the men of those churches volunteered their skills and labor force, and they put the thing up in three days.  Funny, in all my research, I never saw a reference to ‘rest rooms,” so you will have to imagine how that all worked out. (no pun intended)

 

The Tabernacle was located on Globe Street between Main Street and Hamilton Boulevard.  If you know where the big parking lot is for Methodist Hospital; you know where the Tabernacle was located. I mentioned it had no floor, only smoothed out dirt, and after they covered it with sawdust, local folks called it the “Sawdust Trail.” The place was lighted with large, electric globes, and heated by a lot of pretty big ‘Cannon Stoves.’  In all there were six entrances, but they used only four of them: two on Globe and two on Hamilton Boulevard.  They did have twelve fire exits, so folks felt pretty safe in the place.  The name Tabernacle is a Biblical reference and the building was built to house massive religious rallies, concerts, and choirs that numbered in the hundreds.  Celebrities preachers like Billy Sunday and famous traveling Evangelical preachers of the day came here and believe me, they raised a ton of money. It was dedicated on a Sunday, October 21, 1894 and was meant to be a house of worship. Even folks that were of different faiths joined the throng to the Revival meetings because of the wonderful music and choirs. They had rallies that lasted for two and three weeks and they brought in thousands of people, much to the delight of the local merchants.

 

                                 CORN AND  POLITICIANS

 

The Republicans took over and made the building their headquarters and folks began calling it the Wig Wam.  William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan spoke there during the Republican’s National Convention.

 

By the end of 1904 the local churches were pretty much done with the old Tabernacle and by then the roof leaked like a sieve and the structure was pretty much slipping away. In fact in 1902 a church committee voted to tear it down…but it burned down in 1905 saving them the trouble and expense.  However, it remained a valuable piece of property that evolved into the Corn Palace also called the Corn Exposition Building. In between the rallies the building was leased out and the Republican Party made it their headquarters, becoming the meeting place for all the Republican folks from here and far  So life was back to the old place and I mean the Peoria Corn Exposition people turned that place into the Mecca for Peoria’s farmers and they in turn  put on a Corn Festival that brought countless thousands to the city which in turn dressed up the streets and businesses with every kind of Corn  decoration imaginable. Next to it was a 200 foot by 200 foot tent that housed tractors and other farm implement machinery.

 

Across the street was a huge Merry-Go-Round and the area took on a circus and carnival atmosphere with everything from street jugglers to

Side shows and countless bands and parades. It spilled over to the downtown streets where colorful booths were put up to sell the folks everything from balloons to hot dogs and souvenirs. There were a few x-rated activities as this reporter tells us in a newspapers article. “It is like a New Orleans Mardi Gras. There were mostly licentious, immoral, and low down rotten shows that men and boys were ashamed to take their sisters to.”  The big star of the show was a lady from Syria named LaBelle Fatima, a beautiful belly dancer that ‘knocked the boys for a loop.’ She was billed as “Little Egypt” and initially came to America to be in Vaudeville.  There was a real dirty act called “Muddy Maude” who had a strange act that ended with her eating mud! Acting on a tip the police arrested her and after a “Hosing down,” discovered that Maude was really an old bum of a man!  Remember folks this was all before the Turn of the Century right here in Peoria, Illinois; a bawdy, lusty river town that lured folks from surrounding states to ‘Come and live a little.’

 

Once the Corn Festival ended other events leased the  Revamped building which was called Peoria Corn Exposition. They included orchestras, bands, speakers and entertainers of all types.  An opera company was housed there and they even flooded the floor in winter for ice skating. The dirt floor contained an eighteen inch raised stage, and in front of it for fifty feet were hundreds of chairs for the eager patrons.  Behind that arranged in tiers up to six feet high were bleacher type seats, allowing over 7,000 paying customers to jam into the place. Of course the site evolved and as I mentioned it burned pretty severely in 1905, but I found very little details on the fire. 

It was obviously a valuable piece of real estate and was kept in use for many years, improving the area as time went on. Later, the corn carnival ended with a massive parade and a formal ball.  Now it is just an expansive Parking lot for Methodist Hospital.  Boy, if that place could talk it would make a lot of us blush.  

Editor’s Note:  Norm is a Peoria Historian, True Crime writer and monthly contributor to ADVENTURE  SPORTS  OUTDOORS.  Reach him at  norman.kelly@sbcglobal.net