DuPage County Historical Museum facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
|
|
Adams Memorial Library
|
|
DuPage County Historical Museum in 2011
|
|
 Location in Illinois
Location in the United States
|
|
| Location | 102 East Wesley Street Wheaton, DuPage County, Illinois, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Built | 1891 |
| Architect | Charles Sumner Frost |
| Architectural style | Romanesque Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 81000675 |
| Added to NRHP | June 4, 1981 |
The DuPage County Historical Museum is a special building in Wheaton, Illinois. It was once known as the Adams Memorial Library. This historic building was designed by a famous architect named Charles Sumner Frost. Today, it helps people learn about the history of DuPage County.
Contents
The Museum's Story
How the Library Started
The Adams Memorial Library was the very first public library in Wheaton. It was also one of the first two libraries in DuPage County. A kind man named John Quincey Adams gave money to build it. He was a real estate investor and also worked with mills.
John Quincey Adams was born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. He moved to Chicago in 1851. He helped start the Chicago Board of Trade, which is an important business group. He became a well-known person in Chicago.
Adams moved to Wheaton after his wife, Marilla Phipps Adams, passed away. The library was named after her. Charles Sumner Frost was chosen to be the architect. He had just designed the Chicago and North Western railroad station in Wheaton.
Building the Library
Construction on the library began on October 2, 1890. John Quincey Adams officially opened the museum on October 28, 1891. This library was one of the first in Illinois to use the Dewey Decimal Classification system. This system helps organize books by topic.
The Adams Memorial Library was the main library in the area for a long time. It served the community until a new library was built in 1965. John Quincey Adams' gift helped support the library completely until 1923. After that, Wheaton provided more money. When it first opened, the library had over 2,700 books!
Becoming a Museum
In 1965, the DuPage County Historical Society bought the Adams Memorial building. They later gave it to the county. The building then reopened as the DuPage County Historical Museum in 1967.
On June 4, 1981, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. This means it is a very important historical site. The museum's goal is to teach people about the history of DuPage County. They do this by collecting, saving, and showing items that tell the story of the area.
Building Design
Outside the Building
The museum building is located at the corner of Wesley and Main Streets in Wheaton. It has two stories and is built with strong limestone. It also has special Bedford stone decorations. The building's style is called Richardsonian Romanesque.
This style uses rough stone blocks and has strong horizontal lines. It also features wide, rounded arches and detailed decorations. The building looks very similar to another library that Frost designed earlier. Each side of the building has a tall stone gable (a triangular part of a wall). These gables have fancy carvings that look like leaves. Each gable also has a rounded window.
The front of the building has a round stair tower on one side. It also has a double doorway, which is the main entrance. There is a bay window on the first floor. The entrance has a rounded arch with special stone patterns.
Inside the Building
Inside, the museum has oak wood floors and plaster ceilings. The first floor has a large main hall with an oak staircase. The main reading room is in one corner, and there was once a ladies' reading room. There was also a lecture hall and other rooms.
The main reading room has a carved ceiling and a fireplace. The lecture room is decorated with oak wood. The library room also originally had a fireplace. The second floor used to be a large auditorium that could hold 500 people. There was also a dressing room, which was later changed to add a fire escape and kitchen. A staircase leads up to a third floor, which looked down over the auditorium.
In 2018, the DuPage County Historical Museum was chosen as one of the "Illinois 200 Great Places." This was part of a celebration for Illinois's 200th birthday.
