Farwell to 1531 West Fredonia

Lately I have been feeling old, I am about to become a father, and as K loves to point out I turn 30 next, but in the my defense that is only true in that in turn 30 in 2009, I actually I have more than a year until my 30th birthday. But today I found out something that made feel even older, the house that K and I spend most of our college years living in has been torn down.

The fact that that house is gone makes sad and nostalgic for many reasons, it was the first house that K and I shared together, it where I proposed to K, it was the first place I lived that was not either my parents house, a dormitory, or a frat house, it is where I spent three of the five years that I lived in Peoria, and so many of my favorite college memories, such as the piñata parties, took place at that house.

The best part of that house on Fredonia Avenue was it's location, quite simply it could not have been in a better place. It was directly behind my fraternity and across the street from K's sorority, campus was less than a block away. Living there I was closer to most of my classes than I was, when I was living in the dorms. It was so nice to live that close to the frat house, I got to have all the fun of the frat house, but not suffer any of the downsides of living in frat house, my houses was far quieter and did not have that distinct odor of the frat house.

The house it self was 80 to 90 years old, it was at one point and grand family home, but for over 50 years, a professor of mine once told me how he has rented the house out as student right after World War II, had been chopped into three apartments and rented out as student housing. As such it was a very quirky apartment, we had a gigantic living room, but the bathroom and kitchen put together would fit inside the master bathroom of the house I have today. The only way we could get the couch into the house was to remove a window. One also had to be careful climbing the steps to the porch as each step and sagged to a radically different angle.
Even though it has only been five years since we moved out, 1513 West Fredonia, seems like a lifetime ago already. It makes me sad however to think that it has now just been totally obliterated, even if you can never really go back, it would have been nice to a least visit. Even sadder is the fact that do a computer crash that we have lost all pictures from that fun era of our lives