 | |
| Established | 1977 |
|---|---|
| Location | 204 N Ottawa Street Joliet, Illinois |
| Coordinates | 41°31′41″N88°04′58″W / 41.5280°N 88.0827°W |
| Type | Local history |
| Website | Official website |
The Joliet Area Historical Museum is a historical museum located in Joliet, Illinois. The museum documents the history of Joliet and surrounding Will County.
The museum adaptively reuses an urban space formerly occupied by the Ottawa Street Methodist Church, which was designed by Joliet architect G. Julian Barnes, and built in 1909. [1] Located on one of the alternate paths of old historic U.S. Route 66, the museum's modern ground-floor addition features the Route 66 Welcome Center, which presents a permanent exhibit called the Route 66 Experience. This newer part of the museum also connects to the historic Joliet Chamber of Commerce Clubhouse next door (now known as the Renaissance Center of the City Center campus of Joliet Junior College) and to the JJC Renaissance Center's main dining room, which is staffed by the college's hospitality and culinary school students and open to the public. [2]
During the late 20th century, formerly rural Will County townships grew rapidly, while properties in central city Joliet were threatened. In 2002, the former church's urban space was reconfigured as a historic museum. A separate wing is home to an exhibit about the Joliet-raised NASA engineer and JJC graduate John C. Houbolt, honored as the chief conceptualizer of the lunar orbit rendezvous segment of the U.S. Apollo program and the use of a lunar module to shuttle astronauts to and from the surface of the Moon. [3]
The museum is located at 204 N. Ottawa Street in central Joliet. An admission fee is charged. [3]
As of 2014 [update] , the museum was seeking to establish guided tours of the landmark former Collins Street Prison, originally built in 1858, for Route 66 travelers and other interested tourists. [4] As of 2018, the museum began providing tours of the Collins Street Prison. [5]
The museum entered into negotiations to purchase the Gemini Giant and Launching Pad Restaurant in Wilmington, IL in early 2023. The owner of the property, Holly Barker, posted images of a signed contract in October 2023, showing the museum agreed to a purchase price of $420,000 for the real estate, $150,000 for the Gemini Giant itself, and $50,000 for all equipment and inventory remaining at the property, [6] along with a separate agreement to purchase the house next door for $200,000. [7] The following day, Barker posted a letter from the museum's lawyers to her own, revealing she refused to extend a closing deadline. In response, the museum voted to make no further offers, allow the contract to expire, and walk away from the deal. [8]
In the months after, the museum received the $1 million grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity that was holding up the closing. [9] However, by the time this grant was received, the Launching Pad, without the house next door, was now listed for sale for $1.4 million. [10] Local newspapers reported the museum was still looking to purchase the entire property as of December 2023. [11] Greg Peerbolte, executive director of the museum, confirmed the reports but said the museum would only be interested if the owner "is willing to substantially lower her asking price." The museum would run a visitor's center and gift shop out of the building, and lease the restaurant operation to another party. [12]
On December 5, the Joliet City Council tabled a vote on a $250,000 grant to the museum for 2024 operations. City officials want to look further into the dismissal of 13 employees and volunteers earlier in the year. [13] The inspector general, Sean Connolly, advised the city to conduct an audit of the museum before providing any additional funding. [14] Connolly was removed from the position on January 24, [15] and the Joliet city council approved the grant to the museum on February 6. [16]
The museum won the auction of the Gemini Giant for $275,000 [17] [18] and loaned it to the City of Wilmington until March 20, 2026. [19]
Will County is a county in the northeastern part of the state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 696,355, an increase of 2.8% from 677,560 in 2010, making it Illinois's fourth-most populous county. The county seat is Joliet. Will County is one of the five collar counties of the Chicago–Naperville–Elgin, IL–IN–WI Metropolitan Statistical Area. The portion of Will County around Joliet uses area codes 815 and 779, while 630 and 331 are for far northern Will County and 708 is for central and eastern Will County.
Wilmington is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley metropolitan area. Wilmington was named by Proprietor Thomas Penn after his friend Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, who was prime minister during the reign of George II of Great Britain.
Joliet is a city in Will and Kendall counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, 35 miles (56 km) southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. It had a population of 150,362 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Illinois.
Wilmington is a city in Will County, Illinois, United States. Located on IL-53 and Historic Route 66 along the east bank of the Kankakee River, it is approximately 60 miles south-west from downtown Chicago. The population was 5,724 at the 2010 census. Wilmington is just south of Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, which is home the largest bison herd in the state.
The Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway was a Class II railroad, making a roughly circular path between Waukegan, Illinois and Gary, Indiana. The railroad served as a link between Class I railroads traveling to and from Chicago, although it operated almost entirely within the city's suburbs, only entering Chicago where it served the U.S. Steel South Works on the shores of Lake Michigan. Nicknames for the railroad included "The J" and "The Chicago Outer Belt Line". At the end of 1970, the EJ&E operated 164 miles of track and carried 848 million ton-miles of revenue freight in that year alone.
Duly Health and Care Field is a baseball field located in Joliet, Illinois. The stadium was built in 2002 and holds 6,016 people. It is the home of the Joliet Slammers.
Joliet Junior College (JJC) is a public community college in Joliet, Illinois. Founded in 1901, it was the first public community college founded in the United States.
Lothian Buses is a major bus operator based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the largest municipal bus company in the United Kingdom: the City of Edinburgh Council owns 91%, Midlothian Council 5%, East Lothian Council 3% and West Lothian Council 1%.
Route 66 Raceway is a motorsports facility located in Joliet, Illinois, United States. It consists of a 0.25-mile (0.40 km) dragstrip and a 0.375-mile (0.604 km) dirt oval racetrack. The facility is owned and operated by NASCAR and is located adjacent to Chicagoland Speedway.
U.S. Route 66 was a United States Numbered Highway in Illinois that connected St. Louis, Missouri, and Chicago, Illinois. The historic Route 66, the Mother Road or Main Street of America, took long distance automobile travelers from Chicago to Southern California. The highway had previously been Illinois Route 4 and the road has now been largely replaced with Interstate 55 (I-55). Parts of the road still carry traffic and six separate portions of the roadbed have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Interstate 55 (I-55) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the US state of Illinois that connects St. Louis, Missouri, to the Chicago metropolitan area. It enters the state from Missouri near East St. Louis, Illinois, and runs to U.S. Route 41 near Downtown Chicago, where the highway ends, a distance of 294.38 miles (473.76 km). The road also runs through the Illinois cities of Springfield, Bloomington, and Joliet. The section in Cook County is officially named the Stevenson Expressway, and in DuPage County its officially named the Joliet Freeway or the Will Rogers Freeway. The section from the south suburbs of Chicago to the area near Pontiac is officially named the Barack Obama Presidential Expressway after the 44th President, Barack Obama, who launched his political career from Illinois.
Muffler men are large moulded fiberglass sculptures that are placed as advertising icons, roadside attractions, or for decorative purposes, predominantly in the United States. Standing approximately 18–25 ft (5.5–7.6 m) tall, the first figure was a Paul Bunyan character designed to hold an axe. Derivatives of that figure were widely used to hold full-sized car mufflers, tires, or other items promoting various roadside businesses.
Arthur Schultz was an American Republican politician. He was a five-term mayor of Joliet, Illinois, the then fourth largest municipality in the state after Chicago, Aurora, and Rockford. He was last elected in April 2007. Prior to his first election, he served in the United States Navy and in the Joliet Police Department.
The Joliet Slammers are a professional baseball team based in Joliet, Illinois. The Slammers competes in the Frontier League (FL) as a member of the West Division and play their home games at the Duly Health and Care Field. The Slammers were founded in 2010, a year before their rival Schaumburg Boomers.
The Gemini Giant is a landmark statue on U.S. Route 66 at the eastern entrance to Wilmington, IL. Currently in storage, the statue previously stood outside the Launching Pad Restaurant from 1965 to 2024. The 30 foot tall statue is one of many giant "Muffler Man" advertising props found throughout the US in the 1960s. The Gemini Giant is named after the Gemini space program and holds a silver "rocket ship" in his hands, while sporting an astronaut's space helmet that resembles a welding mask.
The Joliet Transportation Center is a multimodal mass transit center linking passenger bus routes, two Metra commuter lines, and Amtrak passenger trains in the city of Joliet, Illinois. It has replaced Joliet Union Station as the commuter and passenger train station serving Joliet. Union Station ceased to provide train service in September 2014, and a temporary station opened. Groundbreaking for the new Joliet Transportation Center took place late in 2016, with construction beginning shortly afterward. After several delays, the station officially opened on April 11, 2018.
Bob O'Dekirk was the mayor of Joliet, Illinois from 2015 to 2023. He was sworn in on May 4, 2015. O'Dekirk is a former Joliet police officer and is a practicing attorney in Joliet.
