Volume 22 No. 1 | September 2026

Annual Meeting and Election of Board. September 27, 2026, 2:30 p.m.

Hear about our new home. 

Celebrate the Museum’s 28th Year. 


  Join us In-person, Sunday, September 27, 2:30 p.m. for our Annual Meeting and Election of Board Members. We must hold the meeting by law and must have an election per our by-laws. 

Program

  Hear about our new home. We may provide an entertaining program as-well.

  Help us celebrate the 28th Anniversary of the Museum, and the fact that we have been able to move the Archive Office and Museum to the Lower Level of Village Hall.

 We have not yet finished retrofitting our new space, so we won’t be offering a tour this year, but we will provide some photos in this newsletter, so you can see what we are dealing with and where we have made some progress.

Save the date for our November 8, 2026 Program


The program is still pending.


Hall of Fame


Hall of Fame will be held April 4, 2026at Freedom Hall. Nominations open

October 1, 2026. Nomination Forms and Guidelines, which must be used

will be on our website soon. Sometime in October they will be in Village Hall Lobby and at the Park Forest Public Library and at our office.

Nominate someone you know who has made significant, long-term, beneficial, contributions to make Park Forest a Special Place to Live!

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September is Membership Recruitment and Renewal Month!

 This year marks the 78th Anniversary of Park Forest residents moving in, the 77th Anniversary of Park Forest as an incorporated village, and the 28th Anniversary of the Museum. We need new members NOW.

If YOUR history in Park Forest means something to YOU, please help us with a membership.

Look for the membership brochure with form in this newsletter. Use this form or, you can opt to join via the website, https://parkforesthistory.app.neoncrm.com/forms/pfhs-membership-form or print out and mail in your form. Just Join!!

Several we have lost were good financial supporters. Please join in honor of them or in memory of someone you considered a Park Forest pioneer or leading citizen.


Thanks to all of you who have been supporting us! We are no longer receiving a Matching Challenge Grant from Village of Park Forest, but receive a discount for that amount in the agreement we have with the Village.

  In order to remain in operation as a Society, we must have more Active Volunteers and more Members.  

Part of helping to Save YOUR history is to lend a hand doing it!

Thanks to all those who do pitch in and docent or serve on the board, help with mailings, empty dehumidifiers, clean air conditioners, man tables and more. 

Join THIS YEAR to Save YOUR History!

 
Halloween Gurley Candles

28 Years of the Museum From the September 2024 “The Spirit” with updates for 2026

  The museum began as the 50th Anniversary House Museum meant to be a 2-month temporary exhibit to kick off the 50th Anniversary of Park Forest. It was sponsored by the 50th Anniversary 

Committee, the League of Women Voters and David Clapper of ThornCreek Townhomes. 

  It came together so nicely we just kept getting extensions. Park  Forest Historical Society took over operation and it remained in 397 Forest Blvd for 9 years. For the last 1 1/2 years we also occupied 395. When we lost 395 and 397 in 2007, we spent some time in storage, then were welcomed at 141 Forest Blvd by new owners of Central Park Apartments.

In May 2015, after rent increases and then losing 141 so that complex could be sold, we found our home in St. Mary’s Catholic Church, at 227 Monee Road. In 2025 the Diocese of Joliet closed St. Mary’s.  

  There had been talk of the potential closing of the church for about a year before it actually happened. We were granted a very kind reprieve allowing us to remain in the church building through May 2026 unless the church was sold. 

  We were searching for a new home, were offered space in the former NursesPlus in the lower level of Village Hall and were in continuing talks with the Village about that. 

 In February 2026 Living Creek Christian Church made an offer on the St. Mary’s building. Thankfully for us those negotiations went on until late May.

 Serious preparations to pack and move were started in January because we knew a church was looking at the building. Our agreement with Village Hall was finalized in about March, so we knew where we could move. When we received keys to the space we could finally begin real space planning. We realized right away that some walls and exam room sinks and cupboards would have to be removed or altered in order to house the collection.

  The challenge of the lower level space is that other than the very large “waiting room” and fairly large conference room, it is divided into 5 exam rooms and a number of other quite small rooms. Walls we need to attach shelving to do not truly have studs, so contractors need to attach the shelves in special ways once other wall repairs/removals in those rooms are fully dealt with.

  Jane Nicoll and some dedicated volunteers, three of whom worked beside her for months and some who came for a few days or for specific moving tasks, began moving van and car loads and trailer loads over to Village Hall. These happened over several days.

  It took awhile to find a mover willing to take on the big job of moving the things we couldn’t for an amount we could afford. By May 13 we began a move that took until May 15—2.5 days. We had a great crew from Skyline Movers. Because they had to leave early the third day we were refunded some of the payment which we are likely to use when we really start setting things up or moving things to permanent locations. 

  Not everything or every box could be delivered to the space where it will end up. Archive cartons delivered to the correct area are piled in numerous stacks, not shelved and are too heavy for regular volunteers to move to find things. There are stronger volunteers who move things when they can. Many boxes have been unpacked or moved to more  permanent placement.  

  Two offices and two Archive work spaces have been set up and are being used. A Video Room has been started, and we are incredibly fortunate this summer to have a volunteer using a 3/4” UMATIC video player to digitize our very large collection of those tapes from the former Jones Intercable and Comcast office, donated several years ago. He is also digitizing VHS tapes using Jane’s VHS player/recorder. He is digitizing to thumb drives for us. He will by no means digitize every video, but it is wonderful to have this project carry us forward while we are trying to find our way settling in to a new home once again.


In My Own Little Corner 

By Jane Nicoll  

   

 Thanks so much to the volunteers who helped with this very labor-intensive move.

 

 Christine Long has volunteered for 4 years, but worked many hours this spring packing and moving things by car. She has worked many extra hours helping to settle her work space, moving boxes, and especially unpacking and repacking videos in smaller boxes, then listing what is in each box so Aaron and others can find them until they can be shelved.

Ron Oosterbaan, long time member who had only met me once, called to offer help February to April and got to leave May 17. We would never have gotten packed without the 100’s of hours Ron worked. Ron also donated moving supplies, helped pick up give-away boxes, and made a generous donation. He loaned us a cart and moved many car loads with Christine and I.

Alex Altan, volunteer archivist worked on labeling and filing, and also on packing videos and file cabinet drawers and is back with us at Village Hall.  

Michelle Johnson came in a number of days and brought wrapping paper and bubble wrap with her to help pack up the museum. Michelle also donated a generous financial gift.

Chris Janota, President, helped interview movers, packed computer and hard drives and worked on the moving days to help supervise, and to pack and unload vehicles. He also kept us in touch with Village Hall.

Ned Rissky took pictures of St. Mary’s for our files. He took apart computers and scanners, sorting outdated equipment, and has now gotten the computers set up again and the network running. He spent hours trying to get a video doorbell set up for us, which we finally had to give up on. WIFI strength is simply not strong enough to run it. Ned has moved  boxes, shared techniques with Aaron Walker, moved file cabinets and helped measure and mark walls. He has just donated two older Apple all-in-one computers which can be used to run slide shows or videos.

Aaron Walker III volunteered to digitize 3/4” UMATIC and VHS videos while he looks for footage for a documentary he is putting together. He has digitized more than 45 videos. We were excited to have him finally connect and run a 3/4” UMATIC player we have owned for years, but had never been able to set up. And it works!! It is a rare machine now days.

Andrew Stover dismantled the closets Carl Stover and Bill Wilkerson had built for us and later found two other workers to bring a trailer and help move them. All three of them helped with dismantling the kitchen cupboards platform and getting the cupboards down in one piece.

Scout leaders MarcyJo and Dan Chachakis led the dismantling of the kitchen cupboard platform, then loaded their truck to help move other things to Village Hall.

Sue Dukes loaned her Traverse and helped load and unload things so we did not have to box smaller or more awkward things.

Judith McGee and Michelle Johnson helped Ron and I protect things we had staged in Ryan Hall and another classroom while St. Mary’s had a two day giveaway.

Many thanks to Father Thomas Milota and Allen Viguziejka of St. Liborius who extended many courtesies during our move. Father donated St. Mary’s break room refrigerator and their out-of-contract photocopier which we very much appreciate having.

We also thank those at Village Hall who have worked with us on using the Lower Level, Jon Kindseth, Tom Mick, Kevin Adams, Andrew Brown, Sandra Zoellner, Heather Jones, Dan Dessecker, Mark Giesling, Angela Thurston and more.




Calling for Rich Township High School Memories

  We have been contacted by a member of Rich Township High School’s first Class of 1954, Mitch Steinberg.  

Mr. Steinberg would like the Society to solicit memoirs, especially from the class of 1954 members. The Society would like to know when graduates moved to Park Forest and why, where they lived, then what they accomplished with their lives post-high school.

  The Society is interested in receiving memoirs from Park Foresters in general, hopefully in electronic format, to be shared on our website.

  We especially encourage alumni of the Rich Township High School district to share their memories of this school and accounts of what they did after graduation. Memoirs can be emailed to PFHS via our website parkforesthistory.org, or if in paper mailed to Park Forest Historical Society, P.O. Box 38, Park Forest, IL 60466.




 We know people wonder why the museum is not open yet. 

Photos tell the story.

  1. Large wall needs to have large section removed to reveal the kitchen.
  2. Wall to be partially removed and repaired.
  3. Kitchen cupboards to be remounted on platform.
  4. Boxes and shelving waiting for wall work to be done. two rooms like this and boxes in the hall as well.

Some of what we have gotten done with refinements to come.

  1. Aaron Walker in the Video Room digitizing. 2. Research Room Local History File cabinets in place and files unboxed. 3. Newspaper Room with Reporters and other papers on their shelves. Processing on other shelves, and boxes on floor to be out of the way of wall work in other spaces. 4.Office no. 2 with computer, printer/scanner set up. Office no.1 also has a computer and scanner set up.

In addition, photocopier and all paper supplies are in cabinets, the staff kitchen is unpacked and in drawers and cupboards. Refreshment supplies are in their place. Two lateral files are in place in the hall. Holiday supplies are all in one Holiday room.

There is a work station in the research room being used.

History As Usual

 

  Though not fully-operational we continue to provide reference service on Park Forest

history. There are boxes we can’t get into easily, but we have had some exciting things to help with.

  Jane attended a July viewing of “Revisiting Utopia” and plugged the Society.

  WTTW contacted us to say Geoffrey Baer is filming another South Suburban tour. Jane worked with his staff and with Geoffrey on the first tour. We have provided information on the Park Forest meteorite shower and on Park Forest being the first fully-planned post-WWII suburb. While the film crew was in town, we helped them find some places they wanted to film. Geoffrey plans to come in person and hold a piece of meteorite we found for him to hold.

  I will be finding photos of our museum in rental units for a resident trying to restore his to more original condition. He also wants to see original sales brochures.

  

The Village has invited Jane to do her introduction to Park Forest history along with speaker Jerry Shnay for the new Leadership Academy Class on October 2.

 IMPORTANT NOTE: The phone number listed in our brochures and on the website,

708-481-4252, is currently not available. The power outage broke the phone.

Phone service to some cell phones in the museum is not reliable.

 

Contact Jane via email on the website. This is Jane’s home number. She hopes to replace the phone, soon.

 

Our New Mailing Address

P.O. Box 38, Park Forest, IL 60466

 

Physical Address

Park Forest Historical Society

350 Victory Drive, Suite LL

Park Forest, IL 60466

  Our location is handicapped accessible by taking the elevator in the center of the lobby, and pushing “LL” . Our suite is directly across from the elevator, but has no signage yet.

 The museum is not open and has no regular hours at this point.

Jane does work many Fridays about 10:30 to 12:30 and usually longer and is in many other times, but you must check with her to be sure she will be there.

 

Active Volunteers and Members:  In order to remain in operation as a Society, and to have the museum open, we must have more Active Volunteers and more Members. Moving and retrofitting are expensive.

JOIN IN SEPTEMBER and watch for our ANNUAL FUND DRIVE. 

Help SAVE YOUR HISTORY!!

 

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