WHEATON – Even before the stately looking stone block building at the corner of Wesley and Main streets in downtown Wheaton opened in 1967 as the new home of the DuPage County Historical Museum, the building was making history of its own.
The building opened in October 1891 as the Adams Memorial Library, built by Wheaton resident John Quincy Adams in memory of his late wife, Marilla Phipps Adams. John Quincy Adams, a descendant of the Adams line that produced two presidents, was born in 1824 in Massachusetts and came to Chicago in 1851.
In recognizing its history, the museum has an exhibit dedicated to John Quincy Adams called Adams' Dream.
"We're celebrating the building as well as our museum history because the building is so important to our history," museum manager and educator Michelle Podkowa said. "We call it one of our largest artifacts because it is an historic building. We take our stewardship very seriously, not only for our artifacts, but also for our building. It has become so much a part of our identity that you will notice it is in our logo."
The Adams Memorial Library was the first public library and cultural facility in Wheaton, as well as one of the first libraries in Illinois to adopt the Dewey Decimal System. The library's current building opened in 1965, just a block east of the Adams Memorial Library.
The museum will celebrate its 50th anniversary during a golden birthday party from noon to 4 p.m. Oct. 21. Admission is free.
As part of the festivities, there will be historic games for children, as well as a scavenger hunt. To register, go to the museum's website at dupagemuseum.org or call the museum at 630-510-4941.
In 1967, the building opened as the DuPage County Historical Museum under the operation of DuPage County and the DuPage County Historical Society. The museum currently exists as a facility of the Wheaton Park District.
The building still houses a library, the museum's research library. The museum also houses about 40,000 pieces documenting the history of DuPage County, which was established in 1839.
In presenting that history, the museum always is adding new exhibits. Its latest exhibit, "1917: Catalyst for the Modern Era," will run through July 30, 2018.
"We hope it will show a snapshot of what life was like in 1917, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entering World War I, but also to expand it beyond World War I," Podkowa said. "Because a lot of times when a war is going on, historically, that's what people focus on."
Accompanying the exhibit is a catalog that museum staff wrote and edited. The catalog will be available for purchase.
"It's the second time the museum has ever done a catalog," Podkowa said. "It's a 30-page-long document, and it goes over the history of World War I and it talks about the history of women during the time period and women's fashions during the time period and how World War I and the time period changed fashions. We [also] talk about the American Red Cross along with prohibition."
Most of the museum's artifacts are donated, she said.
"If people are interested in donating something they think is significant to the county history, they go through our curator," Podkowa said. "They contact her first, and she talks with them, finds out a little more about the object and does a little preliminary research in our collection to see if we already have something very similar. We [consider] whether the object is historically important to DuPage County. We want to get the whole history of the object if we can. The more history, the better because then when you display the object, you can put the story with the object."
One of the most popular exhibits at the museum is a train layout covering more than 2,000 feet of track that highlights some of DuPage County's railroads and landmarks. The DuPage Society of Model Engineers has maintained the HO gauge model train layout since 1965.
Trains run from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. on the third and fifth Saturday of each month, and they will be running during the 50th birthday celebration next month.
The DuPage County Historical Museum continues to be a popular attraction.
"Over the course of a year, we see about 7,000 to 8,000 visitors [who] just come to see the museum," Podkowa said. "And then we see another 1,000 to 2,000 visitors that are here for educational programs, lectures and educational and history-related events."
And she is looking forward to celebrating the museum's next 50 years.
"Our museum has already grown so much and done so much," Podkowa said. "There's so many different things that we do now besides preserving that history and preserving those artifacts and always getting new artifacts and preserving those as well."