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Pigeon Hill
Pigeon Hill, or simply The Hill, is the common name for the very poor neighborhood near Crestmont Park. It is famous for being Bloomington's "bad" district, although no more than about five blocks wide and three deep, running roughly from 11th Street to 17th Street west of Rogers Street.
During prohibition, bootleggers and drunkenness were common, and police walking a beat in the neighborhood would pair up for safety.
Most of the houses were Shotgun houses, some with floors made of lineoleum over dirt.
A bridge takes Rogers Street over the railroad in the neighborhood. The name most likely originates from a feed mill that was nearby. As workers shoveled grain, corn, and wheat into the mill from railroad cars, some would spill, providing plenty of food for pigeons, and a spring nearby provided water. Pigeons would roost in a grove of locust trees nearby.
http://www.apostolicarchives.com/page/page/5835819.htm http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2004/03/11/digitalcity.0311-HT-A10_JLR15415.sto
