Almost two years after the formal dedication of a memorial park honoring the more than 2,600 Peorians who were buried at the former Moffatt Cemetery on the south side of Peoria, site improvements are now underway at the park located at the corner of Griswold and S.W. Adams St.
Thar park, which was dedicated in a ceremony on Flag Day, 14 June 2023, presided over by Peoria Mayor Rita Ali and featuring a keynote address by Illinois Lieut. Gov. Juliana Stratton, includes three Illinois State Historical Society markers: one telling the story of Moffatt Cemetery, another listing the 52 military veterans who were interred at Moffatt, and a third relating the remarkable story of Nance Legins-Costley (1813-1892) of Pekin and Peoria, who was the first African-American to secure her freedom from slavery with the assistance of Abraham Lincoln. The park’s name, Freedom & Remembrance Memorial Park, is due to the common theme and spirit of those stories.
Moffatt Cemetery was closed in 1905, after which it fell into severe neglect for about five decades, until in the mid-1950s the City of Peoria cleared away the gravestones and, claiming all the burials had been removed, rezoned the property to light industrial. In fact, most of the burials are still there. Over the course of about seven years, Robert Hoffer of the Peoria Historical Society and a team of volunteers worked with the Peoria Park District and the City of Peoria and numerous community groups to create Peoria’s new memorial park.
After the 2023 naming ceremony, further plans were made to improvement the park by added paved areas, including a circular central plaza for the flag pole, storyboard, and historical markers, parking spaces, new sidewalks, and a new entryway.
The contract for the site improvements was approved last month by the Peoria City Council at their meeting on Tuesday, March 11. The council awarded the contract to Illinois Civil Contractors Inc. for the Moffatt Cemetery Infrastructure Improvements Project, in the amount of $99,715.77, with an additional authorization of $9,984.23 for contingencies, for a total cost of $109,700. Work began at the site soon after the vote. The historical markers and sign were removed soon after the improvement work began to prevent them from being damaged, and also because the historical markers were in need of refinishing.
As of last Tuesday, April 8, workers finished pouring the concrete for the central plaza and plaza access, as well as a new curb, gutter, and entry slope off Griswold. The entry slope is for both the park and the property of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers, and Allied Workers Local 69, which was one of the groups that supported the creation of the park. By this Wednesday, April 16, fresh asphalt had been laid for parking lots and park access. After the asphalt has cured for a couple weeks, it will be sealed and striped, after which subsoil and sod will be added around the park’s central plaza.
The improvements project will include the creation of a new park sign that will include the logo of the Freedom & Remembrance Memorial Park Project. The logo, which was designed by Hoffer, includes the colors red, white, and blue for America and the 52 veterans there; a red star that illustrates the memorial and park location; straight lines that represent Adams and Griswold streets; a pennant ‘flag’ that depicts both the shape and location of the cemetery; and a white line on the ‘flag’ that demarks the area not used for burials.
The improvements project is expected to be complete by this September.
Below are a series photograph taken by Robert Hoffer that illustrate the ongoing improvements work, along with the formal site plan of the project.
