Hillcrest Golf Center

On October 12, 1956, brothers Leroy and Harvey Slagell purchased 55 acres of the Irwin Keil farm outside of Washington with the intention of constructing a golf recreational center with an 18-hole par three course, a driving range and a miniature golf course. The land was adjacent to a grove of trees known as Holland’s timber. Par three courses were becoming very popular in other parts of the country, but there were none in the local area.

The driving range and miniature golf courses opened very quickly in the spring of 1957, and in this time the Slagell’s had taken on a partner, Roland Brubaker.

The 18-hole course, however, was going to take much longer to develop. The spring and summer of 1957 brought on a couple of large projects. One was creating the special greens for the course, which included a seven-inch layer of sand as their base. The other was the construction of a million-gallon lake to serve as a hazard on two of the holes. A 1958 opening of the course was going to heavily depend on the spring weather. In perfect conditions the course could have been ready by June 1, 1958, and they only missed it by a few days.

Originally, the fees to play were $1.00 for 18 holes during the week and $1.25 for weekends. Also, the original layout of the course had the front nine and the back nine opposite of what they are today.

In 1962, Roland and Ada Brubaker bought out the Slagell brothers and became sole owners of the course and the course became a family business, which it remains to this day.

In 2013 Hillcrest was devastated by the tornado that barreled through Washington. The pro shop, driving range, and miniature golf course were destroyed.

The Brubakers vowed to rebuild, and the course re-opened in 2014. The clubhouse which was totally destroyed did not re-open until May 2015.

The miniature golf course, which was not covered by insurance, was rebuilt by local high school students from East Peoria, Eureka, Illini Bluffs, Limestone, Metamora, Morton, Pekin, Washington and Woodruff schools, in conjunction with the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council’s Strategic Manufacturing Group. It re-opened in June 2015.