Iowa Interstate's PESI 25 road freight takes a slow, 10 mph stroll north through downtown Peoria as it creeps beside Water Street past the many repurposed brick buildings of the city's old Warehouse District. Most prominent in the scene is the Stuber Building (Murray Place); Built in 1928 by Joseph Stuber and Henry Kuck, it was used to serve as a manufacturing and warehouse hub for their tinware business. Years later, the two would part ways and the business would fold along with the pair's separation. Upon the dissolution of Stuber & Kuck, the building here at the corner of Walnut and Water St was retained by Mr. Stuber and became officially known as the "Stuber Building," still to this day proudly displaying his name. The ensuing decades found the building playing host to a variety of small businesses until Mr. Stuber's father, George Murray, Sr. leased the building and operated his namesake tire company out of the first floor. During that same time on the fourth floor worked Boss Manufacturing and their assembly line of sewing machines fabricating their own line of protective gloves while on the second housed over $1 million of Seagram hard liquor products stored in a space leased to Federal Warehouse Company. After leasing for many years George Murray ultimately purchased the building in the early 1960s and after the tire company closed, George and his family operated a catalog showroom store that, like many before it, also eventually went out of business. The building sat vacant until 1986 when Dan and Kim Philips and friend Pete Kelley opened the Antique Center and an art studio (Waterfront Studios and Gallery), which also featured a book and toy store, jewelry outlet and sandwich shop on the first floor brought in from the notion that these speciality shops would do good business with the close proximity of mainstream retail that was planned to take shape downtown. Friend of Kelley and the Phillips', renowned artist Preston Jackson also moved into the building, soon opening a studio of his own. Now the building was operating three floors with arts on the third, antiques on the second and small retail and a restaurant on the first, which all brought in a steady flow of people fed by gallery openings and other goings on at the Waterfront. The current blend of retail, art and antiques operated strong for a number of years between the late '80s to the early '90s until the economy crashed, forcing Kelley to close the Waterfront and allowing Jackson to expand his studio and eventually open his own "Round Rock Gallery" inside the building. Likewise, the Antique Center capitalized on the available space and expanded its business to two floors despite the shops and restaurant closing on the first and plans for a downtown mall scratched. By the mid-1990s, the Antique Center now occupied 40,000 square feet of the building and rent was getting too much to pay, ultimately forcing the Philips' to move out to a new location after eight years at the Stuber. Soon following suit, Jackson and his partner, Bob Emser vacated the property and opened the Contemporary Arts Center, "CAC," which is still open to this day a couple blocks north. With all the available space, the building quickly became a revolving door for many artists, especially local Bradley University college students, to create small studios of their own to practice and study art. Fast forward to autumn of 2015, the Murray family and Aristo Properties Group came together and the decision to finally redevelop the Stuber was made. Renovations to the historic building included Aristo Properties and John S. Rhodell Brewery on the first floor, Farnsworth Group on the second and high end one and two bedroom apartments on the third and fourth floors as well as a rooftop patio spaces. Lots of history to this building and it saw its fair share of businesses come and go until its much needed redo in an effort to repurpose Peoria's mass of old warehouse buildings to attract people and increase income to the city.
As for the train, its 64 cars of interchange traffic from the Tazewell & Peoria consists mostly of empty grain hoppers from the Archer Daniels & Midland plant as well as a few ethanol loads and a handful of potash empties for the CP from Mosaic Nutrition in Bartonville. Out of the yard from Bridge JCT, it's utilizing trackage rights on TZPR's 6-mile long Peoria Uptown Division until the train can reach home rails north of the city in Peoria Heights for the rest of its trip up to Bureau and west into Silvis. A pair of the railroad's veteran four-axle GP38-2s circa the 1970s get the honors to lead out today's train on this overcast March afternoon. The track in the foreground is the switching lead to ADM out of frame to the left. Shot from atop the IL Route 40 Bob Michael Bridge.
