Gift items sold by the Society. Who is on your gift list?
Visit our 1950s Park Forest House Museum, 227 Monee Road, Park Forest, IL during open hours (Wednesdays and Saturdays, 1:00-3:30 p.m.) to purchase any of the items listed below. A few more items are also available at the Museum. If you prefer to purchase online, you may use our convenient PayPal option to order and have items shipped to you.
Marshall Field's Park Forest Store Bricks
Price: $15 each OR $25 for two.
Shipping & Handling: $19/box (one box holds up to 3 bricks)
Each brick includes a Certificate of Authenticity, and a one-page history of the Park Forest store.
We have a limited supply. Purchase online through PayPal or reserve your brick(s) by contacting us and picking them up at the 1950s House Museum during open hours or by appointment.
Prints
Park Forest Plaza and Holiday Theatre Print
Print by Annabelle Gould, 1966. 11"x14"
Price: $15.00; S&H: $6.00
Vibrant print from an original watercolor, showing kids and their moms in the Park Forest Plaza, in front of the Holiday Theatre and Golden Hanger Shop. The print comes in a white envelope.
Postcards
Price: .25 each. Pack of 8 postcards: $2.00
You may receive duplicates of one, rather than all 8. Until we get our storage situation settled, we are running out of one. Postage and handling charges are extra.
The postcards are made from photographs in our collection.
- Birth of a City shows the famous sign from the tent meeting of November 27, 1948, with part of the crowd sitting beneath it.
- All America City Awards shows several movers and shakers holding the 1954 All America Banner.
- Tots on Trikes shows a view of a street in the early rentals with kids on late 1940s trikes and riding toys.
- Park Forest Plaza is an aerial from June 1956.
- Clock Tower Construction, July 1950 shows two men building the framework of one of our Clocktowers in the Plaza.
- Muddy Kids is our iconic image of kids in the early rental courts, covered in mud, taken near 2868 Western in Spring 1949.
- Mudville shows Court F-6 in March 1949, with duckboards.
- Aerial View April 1949 shows the construction of the rental units looking from the Forest Preserve, west.
50th Anniversary Calendar
Price: $2.00
Produced in 1998-1999. The calendar contains 18 photographs from our collection. Sells for $2 in the Museum. Shipping and handling charges apply if mail ordered.
Dates of when organizations began and Park Forest's historic events are recorded on the calendar pages.
The calendar covered August 2008-December 2009, the time we spent celebrating the 50th Anniversary with special programs and events. The names and dates of those events are listed, in most cases.
Books
Park Forest Dreams and Challenges by Jerry Shnay. Autographed.
Price: $22.00; Shipping & Handling: $8.00 each.
Published by Arcadia Publishing in the Images of America series. Sales of this book directly benefit the Park Forest Historical Society. Jerry Shnay donates all royalties to further our mission. This wonderful book tells the history of Park Forest with photographs and narrative.
Remembering Marshall Field's, by Leslie Goddard, 2011. Autographed.
Price $20.00, Shipping & Handling, $8.00
For more than 150 years, Marshall Field and Co. reigned as Chicago's leading department store. This lavishly illustrated book traces the store's history from its beginning as a dry good store in 1852 into a world-class fashion and service trend-setter. Photographs, ads, postcards, and memorabilia trace the store's cherished traditions. Brief discussion of Park Forest store with a photo or two from our archive.
Aunt Mary's Guide to Raising Children the Old-fashioned Way, by Amy Peele. Autographed.
Price: $16.00; Shipping & Handling: $8.00 each.
By former Park Forest resident, Amy S. Peele. This personal account, includes stories on growing up in Park Forest.
America's Original GI Town, 2nd edition, 2010 by Gregory Randall. Autographed.
Price: $25.00; Shipping & Handling: $8.00
The definitive book on Park Forest's place in city planning history, this highly readable book was researched in large part in our archive, with many images from our collection. Gregory Randall lived in Park Forest as a child.
Park Forest: The Early Years, 1946-1956, by Carroll F. Sweet, Jr.
Price: $10.00; Shipping & Handling: $8.00
Written by Carroll F. Sweet, Jr., as part of his autobiography. Carroll was the son of the man by the same name who had the idea to build Park Forest as a GI Town. When he got out of the U.S. Navy after World War II, Carroll came to work for American Community Builders as an assistant to the president, Philip Klutznick. He helped come up with the "temporary" name, "Park Forest" for the FHA loan application in 1946.
When the town was under construction, Carroll established the first ACB office in Park Forest. He delivered the mail, which was delivered to Chicago Heights, delivered water bottles until the water was deemed safe to drink, and was instrumental in setting up the interface between ACB and its tenants.
Carroll named many streets in Park Forest, including the Medal of Honor Streets and all of Lincolnwood, which was named after people and places in the life of Abraham Lincoln. This is a fascinating look "behind the scenes" from someone who was there at the beginnning.
