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Reflections
Fox River Valley rich in easy-to-reach local history museums : Reflections : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisFox River Valley rich in easy-to-reach local history museums
| by Roger Matile
| 8/5/2010
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What with the financial turmoil this past year, a lot of folks have curtailed or abandoned altogether their vacation plans this summer.
It's always a valuable experience to take kids to see places that have made a significant impact on the history of the nation. Touring Washington, D.C.; visiting Presidential libraries and historical sites; and poking around in various museums in the nation's big cities is not only entertaining, but also may leave a little residual knowledge behind that kids can make use of in school.
But just because you're staying home in the Fox Valley doesn't mean you can't learn a little history and have fun doing it at the same time. In fact, you're lucky you live here. The Fox Valley is a veritable hotbed of history and historical sites, enough to make for several of what the national media likes to call "staycations," because you don't have to leave the area to enjoy them.
You can spend several days just visiting museums up and down the Fox River, and you'll learn a lot about Illinois, as well as the history of the area you're calling home. Localizing history is always a good way to reach kids, even those who seem to have little interest in the subject. Because in the end, there really is no boring history, only boring people who try to present it. So let's fire up the old auto, load up the family and head north.
Start your Fox Valley history staycation by driving up to St. Charles, where our historical fun begins at the St. Charles Heritage Center, 215 E. Main Street. The museum is located in the McCornak Oil Company building, built in 1928. This excellent local historical repository offers exhibits on St. Charles and St. Charles Township history, including a handy timeline of important St. Charles events from 1833 to the present. Along with the standard military, education, industry, and agriculture exhibits, you'll find a special exhibit on the unpleasantness when a local medical school caused a riot by accepting cadavers from grave robbers in the 1840s. Their hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and noon to 4 p.m. Sundays. Call them at 630-584-6967.
Then head south to the Geneva History Center, 113 South 3rd Street, the second of our "Tri-Cities" museums. Located right in the heart of Geneva's historic downtown business district, the Geneva History Center features professionally designed exhibits on agriculture, recreation and leisure, and education, along with the city's rich industrial heritage, from Geneva Kitchens to the many projects and schemes of Col. George Fabyan, owner of Riverbank Labs where U.S. cryptology was developed during World War I. The museum features a display on the colonel's levitation machine. Hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Give them a call at 630-232-6069.
From Geneva we head south to Batavia and the Batavia Depot Museum at 155 Houston Street. Located in the old Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Depot, built in 1854 and moved to its current site in 1973, the museum opened in 1975. With that history, you'd expect a fairly detailed exhibit on railroad history, and you won't be disappointed, with the CB&Q, the Chicago & Northwestern, and the Chicago Aurora & Elgin electric rail lines covered. The museum is also packed with other exhibits, including those dealing with Batavia's history producing water-pumping windmills and Mary Todd Lincoln's stay as a mental patient at Bellevue Place in Batavia from May to September, 1875. You can call them at 630-406-5274.
Next stop is in Aurora, where there are three historical museums and one interactive science museum to visit. The William Tanner House Museum is located on the corner of Oak and Cedar streets. Built in 1857, by merchant William Tanner for his family, the home is an excellent example of the then-modern Italianate-style of architecture. The house features authentically furnished rooms in the high Victorian style. Hours are Wednesdays and Saturdays, 1 to 4 p.m. Call ahead at 630-897-9029.
Then head downtown to visit the David L. Pierce Art & History Center, 20 E. Downer Place. The Aurora Public Art Commission maintains galleries on the first floor, while the Aurora Historical Society's main exhibit gallery is on the second floor. This summer, the historical society is featuring "On My Honor... 100 Years of Boy Scouting," a look at the local history of Boy Scouting, and celebrating the city's local Scout troops. The center is open Wednesdays through Fridays from noon to 4 p.m.
Just a few blocks away, at 53 N. Broadway (the corner of New York Street and Broadway-Ill. Route 25) in downtown Aurora is the Aurora Regional Fire Museum. On Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 1-4 p.m., visitors can enjoy the museum's extensive collection of more than 1,000 artifacts, 2,000 photographs, and hundreds of volumes of information on the history of firefighting. Call ahead at 630-892-1572.
And don't forget the SciTech Hands On Museum in the beautiful old Aurora Post Office at 18 West Benton Street in Aurora. Kids of all ages will have a blast there. Hours are Wednesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Their phone number is 630-859-3434.
In Montgomery, the newly restored Settlers Cottage, located on the front lawn of village hall at 200 North River Street, will be open to the public for the first time during MontgomeryFest, Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 14 and Aug. 15. The cottage will serve as a small museum for village history. Call 630-896-8080 for more information.
Finally, there's the Little White School Museum in Oswego. Built as a Methodist-Episcopal Church in 1850, the museum became a one-room school in 1915, and underwent total restoration under the direction of the Oswegoland Heritage Association from 1977 through 2002. Open Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to noon, the museum features exhibits that tell the story of the Oswego area from prehistoric times through the 20th Century. Special exhibits are featured on a seasonal basis, and are changed frequently. Call 630-554-2999 for more information.
So that's our tour for this week-nine local museums and we didn't even leave the banks of the Fox River. Pretty cool, hey?
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