Ask Dean is a Journal Star series focusing on all things Peoria: its history, mysteries, quirks andculture. Send your questions to dmuellerleile@pjstar.com.
Question: There used to be a “weatherstick” on top of a downtown Peoria bank building. It was a tall, slender tower that had various colored lights on it. There was a small light at the top and the rest of the tower was a longer light. Sometimes the lights were continually lit and sometimes they were flashing, which had different meanings. The colors of the lights would also change at various times, and they also had different meanings. I grew up in Bartonville and they were visible from my parents’ home. Who operated it, when was it removed, and why? —Norman P. Birchler, Lacon
Answer: The 10th-tallest high-rise in Peoria, the Central Building at101 SW Adams St. was completed in 1914. Itwas expandedwith a full-height addition to the west in 1931. The structure was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Ask Dean:The stories behind some Peoria street names, from Plank Road to Sterling Avenue
The former Central National Bank building has aRenaissance Revivaldesign, with pilasters,spandrels andterra cottacornicelines.
The 10-story, 128-foot structure also has been known as the South Side Bank Buildingand the South Side Trust & Savings Bank Building.
Andas "the bank with the weatherstick."
The weatherstick was a cross-like tower with a 21-inch, glowing ball atop a lighted column. Visible for miles, it was both a futuristic "community service" and an advertisement for the bank in the 1950s. Standing 57 feet tall, the structure had 600 feet of neon tubing. The steel tower was built to withstand 100 mph winds.
(The Central Bank weatherstick is not to be confused with the lantern atop the former Commerce Bank building, now 416 Main. Rumor has it that aviator Charles Lindbergh used the latter light to navigate while on his mail runs from St. Louis to Chicago.)
Installing the weatherstick
Placement of the Central Bank weatherstick began on Oct. 15, 1952. According to a Peoria Journal standalone photo published the next day, "WORKMEN YESTERDAY BEGAN INSTALLATION of a 35-foot high, neon-equipped weatherstick atop the tower of Central National Bank building. E. J. Becker (left) and Mark Matteson, both of Milwaukee, are shown as they carried a huge aluminum ribbon ball up the antenna-like tower. The tower, equipped withfive panels of red, green and yellow neon lights, will flash weather predictions." (Early reports of the tower's height varied.)
Made in Peoria
The weatherstick was manufactured locally. An Oct. 26, 1952, Sunday Journal-Star display ad touted its origins:
Central National Bank
WEATHERSTICK
Uses a ROHN TOWER
The weather isn't made in Peoria ... but the new Central Bank weatherstick tower is!
Yes, Peoria's own ROHN MANUFACTURING COMPANY is the manufacturer of the weatherstick towers.
Rohn Manufacturing Co.'s general offices were listed as2108 Main.
By the end of 1952, the Central National Bank was billing itself as "The Bank with the weatherstick" in Peoria Journaldisplay advertisements.
The weather code
A Jan. 26, 1953, Peoria Journal display ad noted the forecasts came "Direct from U.S. Weather Bureau" and offered a key to the weatherstick's color code. The ball was "always red for aircraft warning." A steady ball meant "no precipitation." A flashing ball predicted rain or snow. The stick forecast the temperature: Red meant warmer, green meant colder, and yellow indicated "no change." Before noon, the lights indicated that day's weather. After noon, the tower predicted the next day's weather.
By that code, a Januaryafternoon combination of a flashing red ball and a green tower would have forecast a cold, snowy commute the next day. Or even worse: a dreadedIllinois ice storm.
Visible for miles
A1954 Sunday Journal-Star display ad touted a list of the bank's amenities, including its weather tower: "Flashing its colorful signals from atop the CentralBank building, the weather tower gives a weather prediction seen for miles." The ad included a crude illustration of the building and thetower.
Other Central National Bank services were touted in a rather breathless 1954 Peoria Journal story. It described the bank's correct-time phone line as "one of its extraordinary services to the community." Furthermore, if a Central Bank patron should "neglect to check the forecast and get caught downtown in a rain, they'll lend you an umbrella."
It's unclear when the Central Bank removed the weatherstick. The last display ad in the Journal Star touting the tower ran Dec. 31, 1960. In October 1961, a merger of the Central National Bank and the Commercial National Bank was approved, with the former moving to the latter's location at Adams and Liberty streets.
An Oct. 27, 1961, Journal Star story reported, "The fate of the weather stick is still in doubt."
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