Park Forest: An Illinois Planned Community
In 1998-1999, The Park Forest Public Library received a $39,500 Educate and Automate Grant through the Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the Illinois State Library. Archivist Jane Nicoll was the Project Director.
Twenty-six Oral History transcripts from OH! Park Forest were scanned in Optical Character Recognition. A number of photographs were scanned into the project, along with images of early sales brochures and some newspaper articles.
The Plan of Town, submitted by American Community Builders in 1946, is available, including some architectural drawings of the town done by Loebl, Schlossman and Bennett architecture firm. There is a History Packet that contains a bibliography and lesson plan ideas for several age levels.
The project is now on the Illinois State Library project Illinois Digital Archives. Responsibility for the project transferred to the Park Forest Historical Society in 2006-2007. We hope to add to it as we are able. In 2019, we are improving our ability to scan and can usually provide digital images. Editing of transcripts and re-typing them into MS Word goes on as volunteer time allows.
Visit Park Forest: An Illinois Planned Community to view the project.
