@PeoriaIllinoisan : It is presently the Alto Pekin ethanol plant along S. 2nd Street and Distillery Road. Some Corn Products buildings were removed for Pekin Energy Company ethanol facilities, such as a tank car loadout. Starch and corn syrup (liquid and powder) were main products before ethanol conversion in 1981. www.pacificethanol.c om/alto-ingredients- in-pekin-wet-mill-il linois

Yeah. Drive down 2nd street, turn head to the right when you get to the derby st light.

if you pass cranwills you have gone to far

Is there anything left of the original plant after the 1928 explosion and fire, and if so, would an untrained eye even notice? Commemorative plaque? I wasn't aware of that incident until recently, or maybe only vaguely so.

I recently came across the old Sanborn fire insurance maps being hosted online by the Library of Congress, for some historical research I was doing. I thought there was a GIS viewer (which I can't find now that I'm trying to find it from home), but here's a direct link to the seven Pekin maps:www.loc.gov/collecti ons/sanborn-maps/?fa =location:tazewell+c ounty%7Clocatioekin

@PeoriaIllinoisan : I've worked in there a few times. There are some ancient buildings but I don't have any idea on when they were constructed. What I do know is you can't really see them much from the road. And you're not getting in there to have a look around.And it's the Koch st light, not the derby st light.

@PeoriaIllinoisan : The explosion occurred January 3, 1924. I'll check my notes, which begin January 1, 1926, for anything on plant repairs, rebuilding. I know a couple of new buildings were put up in the late 1930s.

My notes from the Peoria Evening Star's March 10, 1926 edition -CORN PRODUCTS CO. USES FIFTY MILLION BUSHELS "Robert Sherman, chemist at Pekin plant, spoke to Lions Club Tuesday. Pekin plant grinds 50,000 bushels of corn daily. Primary products at Pekin and four other plants are starch, corn syrup or glucose, corn sugar, corn oil, dextrine, gluten feed and oil cake meal. A 56-lb. bushel of corn yields 35 lbs. of starch, sugar, syrup or dextrine; 1.5 lbs. of corn oil, 13 lbs. of gluten feed and 2 lbs. of oil cake meal. Most gluten feed is shipped to New England and eastern states as feed for dairy herds near large cities."So it appears the plant was back in full operation two years (and likely much sooner) after the explosion.