Catskinner and Art. The city of East Peoria received a donation from Caterpillar Inc. of the land that was the original site of Cat's (Holt's) plant in East Peoria. Apparently some 68 or so acres. The state of Illinois gave several million dollars for the construction of an office and retail complex on the site. Part of the redevelopment will be a museum for Caterpillar equipment. ACMOC will be housed in that museum, and we will be populating the museum with antique Cat equipment (on loan).

I would imagine the concrete is fairly thick as it formed the floor in factory buildings. Don't know if it was both inside and outside. Probably.

GWH

"catskinner" wrote:

Why are they tearing up the concrete? What is going to be built there? catskinner

It is being broken into 2-3 inch pieces that will be used as base. They are going to build stores, offices, and housing on top of it. It is part of the East Peoria 2010 downtown redevelopment project.

It would be interesting to know how thick the concrete is.

I recall that the floor laid in the local Cat dealer yard and shop in the late 1980's was 14" thick, and well-reinforced. This dealers yard covers several acres, which I thought was a pretty impressive amount of concrete. I wouldn't like to calculate the volume and cost of laying 68 acres of concrete, at a foot or more in thickness ..

Hi Everyone,

Interstate 74 runs from Northwest to Southeast as it crosses the Illinois river. The river runs from Northeast to Southwest. So as you cross from Peoria to East Peoria, this property lies to your right within the triangle that is bounded on two sides by the river and I-74.

Here is a link to maps and other information about the project: www.eastpeoria2010.com/new.asp# . The website has a good aerial view of the total 80+ acres although the directional arrow on the view is more Northwest than North. Also, the "East Peoria Overall" map shows the location of the museum which is a small part of the total development project.

As I remember from my early days as an employee in the East Peoria Facility, most of the 68 acres where the concrete floors remain, were under roof. The area across Washington Street to the South included the original Research Building and some car parking lots. There may have been some tractor storage space to the east, but I don't remember for sure.

There were several Caterpillar Plant buildings on the site with a smaller portion of it having housed the "original site" that George mentioned.

The site has expanded recently with the acquisition by the City of East Peoria of a blighted area. The houses in that area will be rased and the land developed along with the Cat plant site.

Tricia Potts, ACMOC Executive Director, chairs the ACMOC committee that is interfacing with Caterpillar and the City of East Peoria on this project. She is very much involved and aware of the details, so if you are talking to her, she can answer any questions. The committee is made up of Tricia, two ACMOC Board members and three local club member volunteers.

Regards,
Lee

Here's a circa 1981 map of the Caterpillar East Peoria Campus, with the development site highlighted in green. All the buildings in the development area were torn down around 10 years ago, but the foundations and concrete pads are still there. The letters probably don't mean much to people outside of Cat, but here are some highlights:

Bldg's "A", "B" & "C" are where the original Holt buildings were

Bldg "G" is the old Adminstration Building before they moved to downtown Peoria. This is the building you see in photos with a prominent fascade that bore at various times the names, "HOLT" and "CATERPILLAR", initially with wavy letters and later with plain letters.

Bldg "HH" is the oldest original Cat building in East Peoria, built around 1930. The front part highlighted in blue is now offices but was the old product showroom. This is also the building that President Obama visited yesterday.

Bldg "RR" is now known as "CV". This is where all the Track-type Tractors engineering and adminstration offices are. This is also home to a Track-type tractors history exhibit that features an RD-6 formerly owned by Dave Smith, the reconstructed fascade from building "G", and a variety of tractor history memorabilia.

Bldg X is the old "oval track" tractor plant

Bldg SS is the current track-type tractor plant

Bldg KK was built as an engine plant, but is now where transmissions are built


Dave

I have been in KK, SS and I think HH about 20 years ago. The thing that sticks in my mind is the inner plant rail road with the little crawlers on pads pulling the cars loaded with wood blocks so the crew could change the the floor pieces out. Long gone now.
Terry

Thanks for posting the pics. I visited the plant in 70 as a wet behind the ears engineer. I think we probably toured the HH Building.
They (Cat) offered me a job but their questions on their application made me nervous. Most places back then asked every question but which hand you wiped with but Cat even asked that!!

Does anyone know when the first moving assembly line was installed at the East Peoria plant? Was the first moving line used to produce engines or tractors?