Aftermath of the tornado.
The best way to stay informed of new exhibits, and much else, is to join the Historical Society and receive our Ouilmette History newsletter and email alerts of upcoming events.
We hope you'll visit us soon and often! We're open Sunday through Thursday, 1 to 4:30 p.m.
We feature both ongoing exhibits that you can visit again and again, and new, rotating exhibits that stay up for a limited time. Here are some of the things you'll want to look for when you come to visit us:
"First comes love," says the old children's rhyme. What comes next defines a special day in people's lives: the wedding day.
This exhibit features over a century of wedding finery specially selected from the Historical Museum's extensive costume collections by costume curator Jane Textor.
As part of the city-wide, centennial celebration of
Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago, this new exhibit examines the
1922 Plan of Wilmette. Following Burnham's work,
Wilmette's Plan considered issues such as open spaces, zoning
regulations, street lighting, and transportation, especially the
idea of elevating the railroad tracks along Green Bay Road.
Exhibit highlights include an original Plan drawing, a 1925
street lamp, and illustrations from the town's first
community-wide plan.
Wilmette's identity as a village
is defined by its historic homes and buildings, yet this heritage
has been disappearing at an increasingly rapid pace in recent
years. This exhibit uses photos and fragments to tell the stories
of some of the structures that have vanished forever from the
Wilmette landscape. Featured in the exhibit are the house built
on 11th Street by the notorious H. H. Holmes of The Devil in the
White City fame, the astonishing Benjamin Marshall house and
studio, the Carnegie Free Library, and many others-- all of them
reminders of earlier ways of life, and past sensibilities and
tastes, in our village.
On the first floor is this exhibit about the people who
settled Gross Point and Wilmette in the 19th century. Among the
rare artifacts on display are the medicine bag (complete
with vials!) of the Village's first doctor, Byron Stolp, the
surveyor's compass used to lay out Wilmette's
first streets, and a phrase-book that Gross Point's
German immigrants used to help them make their way across
America.
On the opposite wall is a small but very interesting display of some rare Native American objects found in this area— including the haunting "effigy head," one of the oldest and most famous artifacts in our collection. Also on display is a recently restored mural, dating from 1909, showing an Indian camp on the lakeshore by local artist Mattie Akeley
Here in the old fire-hose bay we've chosen to tell a few stories that help to illuminate the special character of our community and its people. We begin with the tale of the Ouilmettes, from whom the Village got its name, and go on to tell about the controversial saloons of old Gross Point, the terrifying Palm Sunday Tornado of 1920, the long battle over "No Man's Land," the story behind Wilmette's miles of brick streets, and the creation of beloved Roemer Park. Adding to the exhibit are two special paintings created for the Village by local artist George Lusk in 1934. These enormous murals of Wilmette scenes—each painting is fourteen feet long—have not been seen in public for many years, and we're very glad to be able to put them on display again.
The Gross Point Village Hall had it all: clerk's office,
fire department, and police department—including four jail
cells. Thanks to this restoration you can find out how it felt to
be locked up in one of the gloomy old basement cells.
(Kids of all ages love this exhibit!) In the adjoining
cell, "Early Policing in Wilmette and Gross Point"
features antique equipment like handcuffs and a billy club, along
with lots of fun photos.