Why is it so hard for a historic town like Park Forest to save its history?
That’s the question posed by Jane Nicoll, archivist for the Park Forest Historical Society, who is currently overseeing the move of the 1950s Park Forest House Museum into two vacant rooms in St. Mary Catholic Church on Monee Road.
For the last 16 years, the museum was housed in rental units built during the first few years of the village’s life, but has been looking for a new site for more than one year.
“I am terribly unhappy to lose an original building,” Nicoll said, admitting there was no other place else to go after monthly rent at 141 Forest Boulevard increased to $900. The church, she says, was a last resort. Covenants kept the society from buying a co-op unit and a condominium cost too much.
Park Forest was created in the late 1940s and marketed to returning World War II veterans seeking good housing. That’s when thousands of two-story apartment units were built. The village marked its 50th birthday in 1999 with parades, fireworks, parties, the return of celebrities who grew up in the community, concerts, and the creation of a memorial walkway of name-etched bricks. That was a decision to display the history of the town.
A museum, which was supposed to last two months was created in an original rental unit at 397 Forest Boulevard. The two-bedroom apartment was furnished with what a typical Park Forest apartment looked like when new. Current and former residents generously donated books, records, clothes furniture and knick-knacks of the period.
Newspaper clippings detailing the growth of the town lined the walls. There was a wringer washer in the basement and even an original stove in the kitchen. One upstairs bedroom was converted into a replica of the first classroom in town. Closets were filled with everything from party dresses to World War II uniforms, the latter a fitting tribute to those veterans who found decent housing in the “G.I. Town.”
In 2001, the Park Forest Historical Society assumed responsibility for the museum’s operation. A second unit next door stored historical documents. When a rent-free agreement ended in 2007, the society found a new home for what was now the “1950s Park Forest House Museum,” at the corner of Forest Boulevard and Fir Street, but not before storing almost all its historical documents off-site.
This new site came with monthly rent payments that increased each year. When the last lease ended one year ago, the society was given ever-more costly extensions until this month. The society knew it needed to move. Plans call for all packing to be done this month with the museum set to re-open sometime in June.
Thanks to Nicoll’s meticulous scale plan, almost everything will fit into the new site and will be near the society’s archives, already housed in anther church room.
“We may have to construct some display walls and build a couple of closets,” Nicoll said, “but we have space for our stove and refrigerator, kitchen cupboards and even the bathroom cabinet.”
No, the new site is not a real “house” museum and doesn’t pretend to be.
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“The church was as amenable as they were about moving the archives,” Nicoll said. “It’s lovely they would agree to this, but we had no other choice. At least we don’t have to break up the collection. We may only be buying time to consider what we can do.”
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown and can be emailed at [email protected]