Current News & Programs!

Contact the Society with any questions. 

Scrapbooks and catalogued  materials are available at the library.

Circulating copies of "OH! Park Forest," oral history transcripts

are in the cupboards behind the Reference Desk.

The Society Board thanks everyone who has sent in memberships and Annual Fund

donations.

We received $1800 in donations in 2009.  The 2010 Annual Fund appeal brought in _____.  Go to our home page to find the link to our 2011 Annual Fund appeal. The Board appreciates these signs of your support of our mission.

Thanks to new members and to those of you who have supported our mission for years.

If you have not joined, it is never too late.  See our membership brochure.

On Sunday, June 28, 2009, PFHS presented a program on the Park Forest History curriculum unit which was put into use in School Districts 163 and 162 this year.  The unit is designed for 4th grades--the year designated in Illinois for learning Illinois history.

We were all very impressed by what our school children are learning about the town's history  from pre-historic times on.
The curriculum unit was designed by PFHS volunteers, Jean Bernstein, Suzanne Brown, and May Wiza.  It takes the form of traveling through the decades on a time machine.  Photos and documents in the archive have been used in the unit and are incorporated in displays in each school.  Students and teachers have been very happy with the content--even shaping the District 163 60th Anniversary Celebration in May around the time travel idea. Students made a special presentation of what they had learned and thenked the historical society for the unit.  Groups from each school in period costumes put on musical numbers from the
decades, and there were some impressive deliveries of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" and Barack Obama's election acceptance speeches. The Society thanks Jean, Suzie and May, all retired teachers, who have done a superb job of bringing Park Forest history into the lives of our school families. In addition to being teachers, Suzie and Jean raised families here, and May grew up in Park Forest schools from 1957 on.
We offer discount coupons to the students and their families and hope to see them in the museum. 
We also hope the schools will begin to include field trips to the museum as part of the unit.

Do you have photos of St. Irenaeus School or your class photos from your time there?  Please contact us through our link.
The Class of 1959 recnetly had a reunion in Chicago and we discovered St. Irenaeus School history files at the church
had inadvertently been thrown out.  Please help us and St. I's reconstruct the files.

Did you or your family attend St. Anne's Catholic Church before St. Irenaeus was built?  We have people looking for history and photographs of the church.  The museum has a lovely painting of the church hanging in the bedroom, donated by Terry Ruehl who moved to PF in October 1948 and attended the church. 

Terry has since moved and passed on. 
If any of you can help reconstruct the history of St. Anne's please contact us.

On June 13, 2009 thirty-nine or more people came through the museum on a special tour arranged by Jack and Becky Black. 
The reunion first went on a tour of Rich East High School, then came to the museum on a bus provided by the high school. 
Everyone enjoyed sharing memories of their years growing up in Park Forest.

 

Park Forest Historical Society Wins Grants and Aid
March 1, 2009

In December 2008, the Society was awarded a Consultant Services Grant from the Illinois Association of Museums. This is a small matching grant which will allow the Society to have a consultant hold a funding sources workshop for the board. The board plans to hold the workshop in March. We are grateful to the Illinois Association of Museums for recognizing the work we have been doing to move forward by awarding us these funds.

In January 2009, the Society was awarded a $2253 Local Tourism Grant from the Chicago Southland Convention and Visitors Bureau which will greatly assist in marketing the 1950s Park Forest House Museum to potential visitors. The grant is a 60-40 match, which will help the Society design and print 10,000 copies of a new color brochure, pay for a web site designer to help update the website and iron out some of the "kinks" you have been experiencing with it, and to create and place a 2 x 2 ad in the Northwestern Region of Illinois through the Illinois Press Advertising Service tarrgeting visitors outside the Chicago Southland region. We thank the Chicago Southland Convention and Visitors Bureau for awarding the Society these funds, and trust that the marketing tools we create will bring visitors to the Chicago Southland.

In December 2009, the Society gained a 1% Public Architecture partner. This is a website and organization designed to bring together not for profits with building or design projects and architecture and design firms who will help them on a pro bono basis. Our project was listed on the site for about a year before we were contacted by John Benware of Silhouette Design of Chicago. John had designed the new Park Forest Health Department in the lower level of Village Hall while working for another firm. We are delighted to have his generous help evaluating buildings to house the archives and creating drawings of what the facility would look like.

The Society Board of Directors has been very busy working on Strategic and Business Plans, and long range budgets.
With the help of these two grants and the generosity of our 1% Public Architecture partner, we are truly taking some ginat steps forward.

The Society wishes to thank Jane Nicoll for the time she has put into writing the two grants and listing the project on the 1% website. She is also, at this time, project director for both grants and is working with John Benware.

When you see any of the Society board members, stop and thank them for the tremendous amount of work they are putting into this project to keep Park Forest's history collections in Park Forest.
Visitors to the museum in the spring and fall

It has been a busy fall at the 1950s Park Forest House Museum. We hosted a tour of the Rich East Class of 1966 Reunion the last weekend in September. On October 11, the Rich East Class of 1964 Reunion came through and took themselves on a driving tour of the village. Each of these classes had a member who was a daughter of Park Forest Reporter publisher, Irwin "Pappy" Schechter. Both enjoyed seeing the stack of early issues of the Reporter our "tenants" keep on the end table in the living room, and the assorted Reporter stories used as exhibits around the house. We enjoyed meeting everyone who came, and I think they really enjoyed stepping back into the 1950s with us! Keep us in mind if your reunion is coming to the area.

 

There was a private tour for women from the South Suburban Newcomers Club on October 15. They all had fun talking about their lives in the 1950s while looking at the museum.

 

 

 

 

But, the person who wins for traveling the farthest to see the museum is Tess Johnston of Shanghai, China!
Ms. Johnston is an author, notably of books on Shanghai Art Deco. She was making a speaking appearance for the Chicago Art Deco Society on October 11. Last Spring, she told her hosts for that engagement that the one thing she wanted to see while she was in Chicago was our museum!! We thought she had seen the AARP Bulletin of March 2008, but Ms. Johnston says she had read about the museum earlier than that, and thinks she had known about it for two years or more. We arranged a private tour for Tess and her traveling companion and her host, Joe Loundy. We actually had two visitors from Shanghai, since Ms. Johnston's traveling companion was along, too.

  

 A former resident, Joan Schloeter, now of Petaluma, California, visiting in Rockford, Illinois, came to visit with her family, Bob and Mary Lou McLaughlin, April 28, 2008. Joan asked us to say, "Hello" to anyone who remembers her. One of many former residents who has
come through and had a 'blast from the past."

 

 

 

On August 12, 2008, Eugene Weishaar, his daughters and neice came to the museum to speak to archivist Jane Nicoll. Mr. Weishaar is the grandson of Francis Weishaar who owned part of the land Park Forest was built on. His uncle owned the land Rich East High School stands on. Mr. Weishaar and Jane Nicoll had been exchanging calls and letters, and information and photos were exchanged. Eugene Weishaar was born in 1912 and lives now in Pacific Beach, Washington. We were delighted to have the chance to meet him and his family.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Robert A. Dinerstein passed away on August 30, 2008 in his home in Minneapolis, MN. For more information on this, please go to enewspf.com to read Jane Nicoll's Tribute to Robert A. Dinerstein., and to the SouthtownStar to read Jerry Shnay's article of September 11, 2008
From Jane Nicoll's tribute:

Robert and Mary Dinerstein moved into the second court occupied in Park Forest in October 1948. In 1998, they moved to Minneapolis to be near their son, Jim. For many of the fifty years they lived here, Robert Dinerstein led a life of dedicated public service, one of the most influential in setting the course taken by the Village of Park Forest.

August 30, 2008 is the 60th Anniversary date of the first three families moving into the rental units in Park Forest. The first three families to move in were Ross and Leona DeLue with their five year-old daughter, Mary, William and Jane Heckman, and Manuel and
Madeleine Kanter. Each family was received by a different ACB employee, so at different times, each was recognized as the First Family. The ones who stayed the longest were Ross and Leona DeLue, who were often recognized as the First Family of Park Forest. They were honored along with the first 100 families on the plaque the Village of Park Forest dedicated in the Downtown on July 30, 2008, located at Founder's Way and Main Street.
Leona, at 94 years young, still lives in the area, at The Park in Olympia Fields. She helped cut the ribbon for the mural dedication on July 30. Ross DeLue, William Heckman and Manuel Kanter have all passed away. When we did a public relations photograph event of the earliest residents watching the furniture being moved into the original 50th Anniversary House Museum unit, ten years ago, The DeLues and Mr. Kanter were among the people we had there. Photographs of that event are on the dining room wall in the new building for the 1950s Park Forest House Museum at 141 Forest Blvd, open from 1-3 p.m. on Saturdays, including Saturday August 30. There is also a copy of the DeLues lease. In binders in the dining room, visitors can read rental brochures and see typed memos from American Community Builders. In the living room of the museum is a binder with the list of the families who lived in the first six courts occupied. A scrapbook in the classroom contains an article listing the first 100 families to sign leases for rental units. Also in the classroom are news stories about the November 27, 1948 tent meeting where residents and those who had signed leases voted to incorporate as a Village.

On a bookcase in the living room, under a sign listing all of the OH! Park Forest Oral Histories available online or at the Park Forest Public Library, is a copy of Leona DeLue's interview about what it was like to come to Park Forest and what life was like here. Transcripts from OH! Park Forest are available for checkout from the Adult Services Department of the library. There are 26 of the 77 transcripts, fully-edited, online on the Illinois Digital Archive, in "Park Forest: An Illinois Planned Community." They can be directly accessed through the Park Forest Historical Society website at www.parkforesthistory.org. A tour of the museum and the history and programs of the society can be viewed on that site, as well. The society urges people interested in the unique history of Park Forest to check out transcripts from the library and hear about the village from those who made it the special place it is today.
3010 rental units were built between October 1947 and October 1949, and all
are still standing today. All of the first couples moved in to Court B-1, the same
court that Philip Klutznick and his family lived in. Klutznick was the
President of American Community Builders. Mr. Klutznick said later, that he actually had partially moved his family's things into their unit, and could have claimed to be the first move-in, but his wife, Ethel, gave birth to their fifth child, preventing them from moving down that day. He was happy to give the honor to his tenants.

If you have not yet, visited the 1950s Park Forest House Museum, this is the perfect Saturday to do it. Help commemorate the beginning of the 60th Anniversary of the village by learning more about its history, and by taking a step into the 1950s with us!

The 1950s Park Forest House Museum, at the corner of Forest and Fir, is open Saturdays 1-3 p.m. Donation is $5 for adults; children 12 and under are free with a paying adult. The museum is in an original rental unit, furnished as it might have been in the first five years of the village, 1948-1953. Guides are available to tell how the village came to be built, and to describe social and fashion trends of the era. One room depicts Forest Boulevard School the first of several rental area schools built as the school buildings were being constructed.

For more information on the museum, contact Jane Nicoll by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 8-28-2008

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We are on the web in a pretty impressive article
from Cotton and Quail Antiques Gazette,
reprinted on Antique Trader website, July 3, 2008.
The article title is, "Step into the 1950s at Park Forest House Museum," by Alan M. Petrillo.
I will try to link to it, but If I don't succeed, you can search 1950s House Museum and find it on the web.
"Step into the 1950s at Park Forest House Museum"

We apologize for not updating the site in several months. We have now changed webhosts.
With much patient help from Gary Kopycinski of Shire Enterprises we should be
back in business! We had a scripting incompatibility with the previous webhost,
i.e., I could not edit anything, or add anything.
Now that I can add things, keep watching the Memoirs section as I add the many wonderful
Memoirs people have been sending us.
We may have one more webhost change, September to November.
There will be some downtime if we switch.
Our thanks to Gary Kopycinski of Shire Enterprises for his patient help!
_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

On February 3, 2008 the Chicago Tribune ran a wonderful story by Joel Hood on the museum in the Metro section,
Page 1 and page 5, with color photographs by John Smierczak (a former resident!). You have to pay to read it on their official site, but there is another site which still had the text for free. The article has brought many visitors to our doors in the past few months.
That article attracted the attention of the editors of AARP Bulletin. In March on Page 6, they ran a paragraph long story with our web address. We have heard from people all over the country, and even from folks in other countries!
Our website had over 10,000 unique visitors in March 2008, with over 360,000 hits on our pages.
People who never lived in Park Forest found the idea of the museum exciting, and were sending
the story to social networking sites, where 70-80 more visitors would come check us out online.
The museum is booking tours for seniors groups, small groups of friends who want to see it together and for
intergenerational family groups. In the next few weeks we will have a reunion group come through.
Visitors have come in person from San Jose, CA, Cleveland, Ohio, Wisconsin, Scottsdale, AZ, Silverdale, WA, and State College, PA.
Schedule a tour for a group you belong to, or grab some friends and family and come during our regular hours!

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.

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.

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________