MCHS President Bob Frenz accepts certificate from Rich Carter
MCHS Rss feed -News & Events
DECEMBER 2013- The unassuming gravestone with the surname “Sayer,” found in McHenry’s St. Patrick Cemetery, belies how powerful and influential this family was at the turn of the century – in McHenry County and Chicago.
Born in Two Rivers, Wis., in 1864, George Sayer and his bride, Rose, had moved to Chicago by 1890. Once in Illinois, he and two partners founded a butcher’s supply company that became, according to an April 13 Chicago Tribune article, “one of the most prosperous businesses [in that field] in the middle west. The business was incorporated at $2 million.”
The city of Woodstock has begun the process for the acquisition, restoration, preservation and reuse of the historic old McHenry County Courthouse built in 1857. It is one of a few remaining pre-Civil War courthouse buildings in Illinois. The sheriff’s house was added in 1887. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
More than 200 people celebrated golden anniversary of the McHenry County Historical Society
In late summer, while the cicadas drone, come and see the annual Afternoon Sing-along at the 1895 Riley Church, 9316 Riley Road, Marengo
Check out our event calendar to see when the event is scheduled.
To reach the church, take Route 23 south of Marengo to Anthony Road. Turn right (west) to Riley Road. It is located just north of the intersection – between the school and township hall. Parking is permitted in the school lot. Refreshments and conversation follow.
About 66 yrs ago, the Ford School, c.1886, was about to be torn down...
Part of our past is taking root in Lake in the Hills.
Laurie Selpien, a Carpentersville native, a 13-year resident of Lake in the Hills and a member of the McHenry County Historic Preservation Commission, launched the idea of re-creating a World War I-era garden at the Algonquin Lake in the Hills Interfaith Food Pantry last year. With assistance from Jacobs High School’s environmental club, the Green Eagles, it is soaring to new heights.
If you have completed a renovation project, large or small, on your older home in the last two years that is in keeping with the historic character of the building, submit a nomination to the McHenry County Historic Preservation Commission by April 30. The award is for projects that were completed between Jan. 1, 2012, and Dec. 31, 2013.
MAY 2013 - John Strohm began his presentation with panache.
“It’s easy to bellyache about lazy Washington bureaucrats and corrupt State House politicians,” the Woodstock Citizens Committee leader wrote in his presentation to the All-America Cities Jury in 1963. “But only if we make our own local government work, so we have the right to complain about big government. For the foundation for democracy surely begins at home.
MCHS presented a plaque at the Josephine and William Lorimer Jr. House May 2013
FEBRUARY 2013 - Examples of old mills repurposed interesting ways are not hard to find: A sawmill turned into a restaurant in downstate Urbana, an 1857 feed mill in Mazomanie, Wis., converted into a restaurant/gift shop worthy of recognition from that state’s historical society; a historic feed and grain building in Loveland, Colo., retrofitted for artist lofts.
The common thread is vision.
FEBRUARY 2013 - The debate raging in Congress over the federal deficit and its possible effect on the social safety net isn’t all that different than what occurred a century ago.
The American policy toward poor relief has evolved from a fend-for-yourself approach to one of public responsibility. But it did not arrive at this point overnight.
On November 30, 2010 the Union Fire Dept. had the 1867 limestone building so they could put in a septic field for their adjacent fireshouse.
This building was a Masonic Hall, the Union Village Hall & finally the Union Firehouse. It was one of the last 4 limestone buildings in McHenry County built from limestone quarried in McHenry County.
When you support the McHenry County Historical Society, many benefits become yours. Did you know that WITHOUT ANY USE OF TAX DOLLARS, we continue to collect and hold in our collection, the three dimensional teaching artifacts of human progress? And, that our museum provides a family-oriented entertainment and educational destination, uniquely and interactively telling the ongoing story of McHenry County and its people?
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