The 1950s Park Forest House Museum’s latest exhibit offers a glimpse into how a village townhome might have been decorated for the holidays more than 70 years ago.
The annual Step Back into a 1950s Christmas! exhibit, which began in 2007, returns from Nov. 29 to Jan. 4, 2023, at the museum in Church of St. Mary in Park Forest. Group and school tours also are offered by appointment.
Hours are from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays or small groups by appointment.
“We have the museum in the last two classrooms but we portray it as having a living room, separate dining room, kitchen, bedroom, classroom and basement and so there’s something in every one of those spaces that’s Christmas,” said Jane Nicoll, director of the 1950s Park Forest House Museum.
“We feature a Black Forest green aluminum tree by C. Sincere Co., which was in Chicago. It’s on a rotating base with music. There are not that many of them in existence now. We decorate it with period ornaments but we also put out other Gurley Christmas candles and Rosbro plastic ornaments.”
Step Back into a 1950s Christmas! features something for all ages.
“We always have toys and dolls on display and some end up near the tree or under the tree. Then there’s Christmas gift boxes from Park Forest or stores that Park Foresters would have gone to.”
Those gift boxes include Lytton’s, Marshall Field’s and Rosina’s, which were all in Park Forest, and Carson Pirie Scott & Co., which was in the former Lincoln Mall in Matteson.
Toys include an Erector Set, a small Howdy Doody, a Slinky and heavy items such as an airplane, dump truck, fire truck and jeep while dolls include Ginger, Ginny, Madame Alexander and Muffie.
“I really love the Gurley candles so there’s a couple of areas where we put those and there’s another choir display. It’s just lots of fun to have the Gurley candles to show,” said Nicoll of Park Forest.
“I love it all. The Christmas exhibit is special and we wish more people would come and see it. We wish we had people who came every year.”
Step Back into a 1950s Christmas! also features a Hanukkah display including a dreidel, a holiday cookbook, menorahs and storybooks as well as pieces about some accomplishments of Jewish residents from Park Forest.
“The developers of Park Forest were Jewish and it was welcoming to Jewish residents. It came to have a very large Jewish population originally,” said Nicoll, who is also vice president and archivist of Park Forest Historical Society, which operates the 1950s Park Forest House Museum.
The museum, which represents what an original Park Forest home might have been like from 1948 to 1953, was at 397 Forest Blvd. from 1998 to 2007 and 141 Forest Blvd. from 2007 to 2015, when it moved to its current location.
Step Back into a 1950s Christmas! is one of several annual exhibits at the 1950s Park Forest House Museum.
“Valentine’s Day is huge. It’s as big as Christmas. We do Easter; a summer display of red, white and blue; and then Halloween,” said Nicoll, who is a founding member of the Park Forest Historical Society, which began in 1985.
Park Forest Historical Society members hail from as close as Park Forest and Olympia Fields and as far as Arizona, California and Oregon.
“We need people’s support. We are preserving history. They should come and see us. Without local support museums go away,” said Nicoll, who has worked with the Park Forest Local History Collection and Archive since 1981 when it began at the Park Forest Public Library.
Step Back into a 1950s Christmas!
When: Nov. 29-Jan. 4, 2023
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Where: 1950s Park Forest House Museum in Church of St. Mary, 227 Monee Road, Park Forest
Tickets: $5 adults; free (with paying adult) ages 12 and younger
Information: 708-481-4252; parkforesthistory.org
Jessi Virtusio is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.