eNews Park Forest

Park Forest, IL–(ENEWSPF)–October 1, 2009--The next program meeting will be held Sunday November 8, 2009, 2:30 p.m. in the Park Forest Village Hall Board Meeting Room. Village Hall is at 350 Victory Drive in Park Forest, IL  60466.

Joseph P. Schwieterman, a resident of Flossmoor, is professor of Public Service and director of the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Studies at DePaul University.  He is heard regularly discussing transportation issues on WBBM News Radio and WBEZ-Chicago Public Radio.

Schwieterman's presentation will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the battles over new development in the suburbs, including plans over airports, expressways, and new commuter-rail lines.  He will also discuss Park Forest's important role in post-war suburban development.

Dr. Schwieterman is author of the recently released book, Beyond Burnham.  This year marks the one hundredth anniversary of the Plan of Chicago by Daniel Burnham. The book studies other urban planning projects in and around Chicago--including Park Forest and projects by Ferd Kramer of Draper and Kramer, who was very involved in marketing Park Forest, as well as having his own developments.  He is also the author of Shaping Suburbia, which included more material on Park Forest.

Our last program was held on  Sunday, September 20, 2009 at 2:30 p.m. in Village Hall.  "Exploring the Park Forest Area Farm History."  This is the notice of that meeting.  It discusses a year-long project with SSGHS to find original farm families from this area.

Society Receives Illinois Humanities Council Grant for Disaster Preparedness

The Park Forest Historical Society has just received a grant of $500 to assist in putting on an October 17, 2009 workshop, "How to Prepare for and Respond to Disaster."  Jane Nicoll, Archivist and Gayle Crompton of the Will County Historical Society, which also received a $500 grant, are co-presenters of the workshop.

Nicoll and Crompton attended a four-day class in May at the Campbell Center for Preservation, "Disaster Preparedness and Response."  In return for free tuition to that class, the 14 attendees were mandated to hold similar workshops in their own regions of Illinois.  Those attending the workshop are from museums, historical societies and libraries in eastern Will County and southern Cook County.  Nicoll and Crompton will be sharing handouts and information to give others in the region resources to assess their property, and to prepare to construct a disaster plan.  Information on how to respond to a disaster and salvage techniques will also be provided.

The Illinois Humanities Council is an educational organization dedicated to fostering a culture in which the humanities are a vital part of the lives of individuals and communities.  Through its programs and services, the IHC promotes greater understanding of appreciation for, and involvement in the humanities by the citizens of Illinois, regardless of their economic resources, cultural backgrounds or geographic location.  Organized as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1974, the IHC is now a private nonprofit (501 [c] 3) organization that is funded by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations; by the Illinois General Assembly; and by the NEH.

Sunday September 20, 2009 at 2:30 p.m. in the Park Forest Village Hall Board Meeting Room, the Park Forest Historical Society will hold a brief Annual Meeting for its membership followed by discussion of an intriguing project. The membership will vote on the society board for 2009-2010, and hear brief reports from the officers. The public is welcome to attend.

The Annual Meeting will be followed by a discussion of a joint venture by the South Suburban Genealogical and Historical Society (SSGHS) and the Park Forest Historical Society (PFHS) to explore the Park Forest area farm history. Kathy Wellington-Nassios, President of SSGHS and Jane Nicoll, Archivist of PFHS will discuss what progress has been made so far in gathering information on the farms and the families who owned them. Both societies have been contacted by members of the Weishaar families who owned farms on the land that became Park Forest. One family owned the land Rich East is built on. The other owned land at the present 26th and Western which may have extended down to the land now including Schubert Woods in the current Cook County Forest Preserve. This has sparked a desire to find out more about other families, including interest in finding photographs of the people and the farms.

Research already uncovered has sparked a broader interest in the history of the area now known as Park Forest. The South Suburban Genealogical and Historical Society (SSGHS) and the Park Forest Historical Society (PFHS) are combining efforts to collect genealogical records, photographs and oral histories of the earliest farmers who settled in southwestern Bloom Township, southeastern Rich Township and northeastern Monee Township. Surnames of early pioneer families include: Batchelder, Blattner, Caskey, Cole, Helman, Ledoux, Marker (Merker), Marthaler, Metzger, Newton, Reibl (Reihl), Roberty, Scheide, Smith, Stuenkel, Weishaar, Wolff, and Young. Names of the farm families can be found on the websites of the societies at www.ssghs.org, and www.parkforesthistory.org.

As an offshoot of the project, SSGHS is collecting information on the St. Anne Catholic Church, formerly at Sauk Trail and Westwood in Park Forest, IL. For over one hundred years St. Anne’s was counted as one of the oldest parishes belonging to the Archdiocese of Chicago. In 1901, lightning struck the building, resulting in a fire that destroyed the original church. Later that same year the chapel was rebuilt, albeit smaller, reflecting its dwindling numbers. From its rebirth until 1949, St. Anne’s was considered a mission station of St. Liborius in Steger. By 1920, its members numbered only 12 families, and by Christmas Day, 1951, the remaining parishioners were holding their first service in the new St. Irenaeus church at Orchard & Indianwood in Park Forest. By the early 1960s, St. Anne Catholic Church had become a memory. SSGHS has been researching what happened to the church building itself and is trying to locate the records of the church, passed on to St. Liborius. The records will shed light on the lives of the families of the area.

Although the church is gone, the cemetery remains, next to the Park Forest Tennis and Racquet Club, across from Rich East High School. With internments dating back to the 1850s, St. Anne Cemetery is one of the oldest burial grounds in the area and one of the last remaining landmarks of the region’s pioneer days.

Although we now have heard what happened to the building, we are still interested in stories about the church.  Come to the September 20 meeting to hear what we found out!

For more information on the project and to offer information on St. Anne’s, contact Kathy at 708-957-7958 or ssghskathy@aol.com. For information on the Park Forest Historical Society, contact Jane Nicoll at 708-481-4252, or parkforesthistory1@yahoo.com.

Our last program was:

In celebration of the 60th Anniversary of School District 163, on Sunday June 28, 2009 the Park Forest Historical Society will present a demonstration of the new Park Forest History Curriculum Unit being used by Park Forest School District 163. The program will be in the Board Meeting Room of Park Forest Village Hall, 350 Victory Drive, at 2:30 p.m. Historical Society volunteers, Jean Bernstein, Suzanne Brown and May Wiza, retired School District 163 educators, joined forces to create the curriculum unit which has been a great success with students and teachers this spring. The district’s 60th Anniversary celebration was inspired by the Time Travel through the decades approach used in the curriculum unit.

May Wiza will demonstrate the material which has been provided to teachers on CD-ROM. The unit was used with several fourth grades in S.D. 163, and may be used by S.D. 162 in the new school year, as well.

Society president, Jerry Shnay says, “We are very proud of the work these volunteers have done to get Park Forest history in to our schools. Education about our Village’s unique place in history is one of the society’s missions, and this curriculum unit has brought our early history to life for the students.”

The society invites teachers and students who used the curriculum this summer to attend the program. The public is always welcome to attend historical society programs.

In honor of the 60th Anniversary of Forest Boulevard School, former students who attended are invited to come to the program and be recognized. The society operates the 1950s Park Forest House Museum which includes a classroom representing Forest Boulevard School and tells the history of the rental unit schools in Park Forest.

Information on the program is available from Suzanne Brown at 708-748-1529. Information on the society and the museum is with Jane Nicoll at 708-481-4252, and on the society website at www.parkforesthistory.org.

Congratulations to District 163 on its 60th Birthday.  If you want to hear more about what it was like to attend the first school in Park Forest and see photos of the first schoolrooms, visit the 1950s Park Forest House Museum at 141 Forest Blvd. On the second floor we have a representation of the first school in Park Forest--Forest Boulevard School, and several photographs and articles on display--including photos of some early District 163 classes.  Visit www.parkforesthistory.org for more information.

Nominations for the Hall of Fame are accepted from the public between October 1 and December 15 each year.  Nominees are selected for consistent, beneficial service to the citizens of Park Forest over a long span of time.  The official nomination form must be used and nominations must include requested information to be accepted. Forms are made available through the mail to all members of the society, and can be picked up beginning in early October at Village Hall, the Park Forest Public Library, or the 1950s Park Forest House Museum. A committee of the Park Forest Historical Society makes the final selelction.

Names of the members of the Hall of Fame are available on the historical society website at www.parkforesthistory.org, and aslo on two plaques which hang in the Ringering Room of the Park Forest Public Libray (not on dispaly during renovation).  Biographical information on the members previously inducted is available in the Adult Services area of the library, in the Hall of Fame albums and in the Park Forest files, under "Park Forest Hall of Fame."

The Park Forest Historical Society needs many more volunteers to cover open hours of the museum and to be available to open the museum by appointment.The 1950s Park Forest House Museum, located at 141 Forest Blvd, is usually open Saturday from 1-3 p.m., or by appointment.The museum is located atthe corner of Forest and Fir, within a block of the police station. If we find interested volunteers, we can try to open one day during the week, as well as on Saturday.

Long-time residents enjoy reminiscing with visitors, newer residents enjoy learning the history of this unique village and people who have lived in nearby towns enjoy sharing what they have known about the village over the years.Contact Jane Nicoll at 708-481-4252, or the society can be contacted at parkforesthistory1atyahoo.com.

The society is seeking other volunteers for special projects including fundraising and work on the Park Forest Local History Collection and Archive.Part of the collection is in remote storage, but there are still projects to do, including clipping and photocopying articles, and updating the website.If you have a talent to offer or need toput in some public service time, please contact Jane Nicoll at the phone number above, or email her at parkforesthistory1atyahoo.com. 12-28-07

Historical Society Urges Support Through Membership

The Park Forest Historical Society urges people to support the society by joining its membership. Membership is open to people living in Park Forest, those who have lived in Park Forest, or to those interested in the history of Park Forest even as it is being made. In other words anyone interested in the village any facet of it is urged to join. The society always accepts donations toward its mission, but at this seminal time, they really need the support of a large membership.

Archivist Jane Nicoll says, "As I rode in the Hall of Fame car in the 4th of July Parade, I saw whole families of long-time residents and enthusiastic faces of new residents. I know many of these people have never joined the society, even though they treasure Park Forest. Now is the time for everyone who loves Park Forest to show that support by joining the society."

The Park Forest Historical Society has faced many challenges in the past year.

The Archive which has been owned by and housed at the Park Forest Public Library since 1981 is to become the property of the historical society when they can secure a permanent home for the collection.

In January 2007, due to flooding of the library's basement, the Archive was packed and stored in two PODS units and put in remote storage. There is no access to this valuable collection of primary resources on Park Forest history.

In May 2007, the society lost its lease to the 1950s Park Forest House Museum, formerly known as the 50th Anniversary House Museum. The museum collection is now in PODS storage. The society also lost use of the unit they were using since 2006 for rotating exhibits and office space. When the library collection was packed up, the society moved the Digital Lab equipment and the boxes containing the extensive photograph collection, and some of the most often consulted files to the office unit. Those boxes are now in PODS storage, but were packed in such a way that the society can gain access to most of them.

Moving the museum collection cost $3,000. Storage of the two society PODS costs more than $300 a month. The society needs the financial support that simple memberships can give them.

The Local History Collection which contains copies of a fraction of the materials in the Archive is still available to the public in the library. There are oral history transcripts which can be checked out, copies of early scrapbooks made by the developers and by District 163 personnel, and books written about Park Forest or about city planning in the mid-Twentieth Century. For people wanting an introduction to Park Forest history, there are two large boxes of things like articles and village anniversary commemorative issues of newspapers full of stories to get you started. There are 200+ files in the library on topics like, American Community Builders (the developers), Architecture, Churches, Biographies, Organizations, Schools, and the history of the Shopping Center and Downtown. One box of photographs is still at the library. You can sit in the reference area and browse the photos of the early days of Park Forest's development, including construction photos. If you are researching Park Forest, and the library staff can't find what you need, they will refer the question to the archivist or to another society board member.

The society now faces the task of not only finding a permanent home for the Local History Collection and Archive but also of finding a new space for the museum and an office space to headquarter the society.   We have found the nnew museum space at 141 Forest Blvd, but we now have to pay rent and utilities, and we still have to support one storage POD.  These are expenses we never had to support before.

If you lived in Park Forest in the early days, if you have just moved here and can tell it is a special place, if you study or teach Park Forest history, or you believe in what Park Forest stands for, JOIN. Your membership dollars will help the society preserve the history of this unique place. The society needs a much larger membership base to remain viable and to accomplish the tasks ahead.

If you have a talent or time to offer to the society, call President Therese Goodrich or Vice-President Jerry Shnay to volunteer. The society needs the second and third generation of Park Foresters to "get on board to carry out its mission of making Park Forest history available for many generations to come. 12-28-07

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites