West Bluff Historic District

West Bluff Historic District covers roughly 365 acres on the bluffs above the Illinois River in Peoria. It is mainly a residential neighborhood of single-family houses, with masonry buildings nearest the bluff edge and frame houses toward the interior. The largest houses sit along the crest, especially on Randolph, High, and Moss streets, while more modest homes lie behind them. Styles range from Italianate and French Second Empire to Queen Anne, Classical Revival, and other revival forms, and the district includes two works by Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School. Settlement began with farming in the 1840s, and more intensive residential building followed around mid-century as the city's commercial center expanded. The district was judged significant for its well-preserved architecture and for the open bluff setting, and for the prominent Peoria business and civic figures who lived there. A few modern commercial buildings, parking lots, and apartment buildings are noted as intrusions, mostly in the eastern part.