‘You have to know the past to understand the present,” said famed astronomer Carl Sagan. The Oak Park River Forest Museum, located at 129 Lake St., is a place filled with community history. Visiting the museum shows how our past has impacted the village we live in today.
The museum opened at its current location in 2017 after being housed at Pleasant Home for almost 50 years. The building, which was once upon a time the 1898 Cicero Fire House No. 2, has been transformed into an eco-friendly facility with a geothermal HVAC system and high efficiency LED lighting throughout.
The first floor currently has a large exhibit honoring the 150th anniversary of Oak Park and River Forest High School with many photos; a green girl’s gym uniform, which reminded me of my high school blue gym uniform with my name embroidered on it; yearbooks; and much memorabilia.
The second-floor exhibit highlights Housing in Oak Park from different eras. The title of one poster, “A Community of Contradictions” shows some of these contradictions. I and many readers take pride in the inclusivity and diversity of Oak Park. I was shocked to see the Charter of the Oak Park Women of the Ku Klux Klan from 1926.
I learned that in 1963, a black violinist named Carol Anderson was initially banned from playing with the Oak Park Symphony Orchestra because of the color of her skin. This brought national attention to Oak Park. When fellow orchestra musicians threatened to resign in protest and the community rose in opposition, Anderson made history as the first Black musician to play with the OP-RF Symphony. This was one of the incidents that led to the creation of the Citizens Committee for Human Rights and passage of the Fair Housing Ordinance.
The museum has raised over $1 million from private and public sources to build an elevator to make the building accessible and add new features, including archival storage and meeting spaces. Contractors will be finalized this spring, and they plan to have the new space open this fall.
On the website, oprfmuseum.org you can take a virtual tour, ask a historian questions and learn more about our community.
At the museum and on the website, famous local residents, called “Hometown Legends” are highlighted. They include Olympic skater Aaron Parchem, who began skating at Ridgeland Common; psychologist Carl Rogers; Roy Kroc, who transformed McDonald’s from one restaurant to the largest fast-food chain in the world; Tarzan writer Edgar Rice Burroughs; and many more.
Did you know you might be able to learn about your own home from over 1,000 blueprints of River Forest homes and a small number of Oak Park buildings?
According to Rachel Berlinski, operations manager, “Research is a big part of what we do here at the museum and why people come to us. We have a lot of resources in our collection, including real estate records, copies of the local newspapers, phone books and city directories, fire insurance maps, photos, and more. Most of our blueprint collection covers River Forest; we do not have a great extent of blueprints for Oak Park buildings. But I like to say, we always find out something!”
This column is called “Favorite Things,” and I asked Rachel about her favorite things about the museum. She answered, “Our community of Oak Park and River Forest is so rich in fascinating stories, people, and innovations. On whatever topic you may have a special interest, there is something intriguing and relatable to be found in our community’s history. And at the museum, we have, and are always seeking more, information and artifacts that can help tell those stories and find out more.”
Joy Aaronson is an Oak Park resident who writes stories for the Wednesday Journal about her favorite things in the village. Previously, she contributed to Chicago Parent and wrote the Kids’ World column for the former Logan Square Free Press.
