The St. Charles Heritage Center—an Introduction to the Organization

This week’s blog is a departure from the regular bit of history. Instead of sharing a unique story or interesting fact about St. Charles I thought I would share some information on the Heritage Center.

The St. Charles Heritage Center started out in 1933 as the St. Charles Historical Society. The organization was formed by a group of citizens who saw the importance of preserving the rich history of the town. The formation of the Historical Society coincided with the 100th Anniversary of the settling of the town.

Members of the first Historical Society Board of Directors included educators Alive Davis and George Thompson, newspaper editor Lina Paschal, and businessmen Herbert Crane, Karl Gartner and Harold Colson. In the early stages of the Historical Society records and items were stored in an upstairs office in the Colson Building.

In 1940, the Historical Society moved into the newly built Municipal Building. The Baker and Norris families worked together to build the Municipal Building as a gift for the city and it was Col. Baker’s wish that a room be set aside for a museum. The St. Charles Historical Society operated a museum in the Municipal Building for the next 60 years.

By 2000, the St. Charles Heritage Center had outgrown the museum space in the Municipal Building, and the City needed more space for the Mayor’s office. In 2001, the new St. Charles History Museum opened in the old Texaco Station on Main Street. The station had been empty for about ten years before being renovated for use as a museum.

The St. Charles Heritage Center is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization and is not a department of the City of St. Charles (although they have been and continue to be great supporters of the Heritage Center). Our funding comes from grants, memberships, fundraisers, donations, gift shop sales and program fees.

Purchasing a membership is a great way to support the Heritage Center. There are different levels of membership ranging from $20 for a senior level to $45 for a family membership. Higher sponsor and corporate levels are available as well, for a full listing of membership levels check the Heritage Center’s website at www.stcmuseum.org Members of the Heritage Center receive our quarterly newsletter, The Charlemagne, notice about upcoming programs and discounts in the Museum Gift Shop and at selected programs.

This year, the St. Charles Heritage Center kicked off a new tradition with the First Annual St. Charles Heritage Ball, our major fundraiser for the year. We celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the Park District at this inaugural event held at the historic Hotel Baker in January. Next year the Second Annual St. Charles Heritage Ball will take place on April 14 at the Royal Fox Country Club, stay tuned for more information in the coming months about tickets and the honoree.

Our Museum Gift Shop offers a wide variety of items including history books, vintage children’s games, afghan throws, t-shirts, Christmas ornaments, ceramic crocks and much more! Several new additions in the gift shop are the 2011 edition of the Christmas in St. Charles Collectors Ornament. This year the ornament features the St. Charles Park District in honor of their 100th Anniversary.

In addition to the new ornament, we are now carrying a variety of 4-inch and 6-inch decorative tiles and coasters with historic postcard images of St. Charles, Chicago and Illinois. Finally we are now offering white short sleeve t-shirts with the colorful “Greetings from St. Charles” postcard image on the front. These shirts are available in S-XL. As always Heritage Center members receive a 10% discount on gift shop purchases (some exclusions do apply).

Education is an important part of what the St. Charles Heritage Center does. Our exhibits at the Museum serve to educate visitors on the important people and events from our history. In addition we offer a variety of programs for both school and scout groups. Most of the programs focus on the early development of the community and the settlers who established St. Charles. In addition to these field trip style programs, the Heritage Center also offers quarterly evening lectures at the Library on a variety of history topics; we have a book club that meets every other month at the Library to discuss books on local and regional history, and we run an award winning program for grade school and middle school kids called The Junior Historical Society.

The Junior Historical Society meets once a month during the school year and is open to any student 8-13 years old. Members learn more about local and regional history, perform research and develop museum exhibits, and take trips to other area museums. If you know a student who might be interested in the group look for information about registration coming up this August.

If you were not very familiar with the St. Charles Heritage Center before, I hope this gives you a little more information on who we are and what we do. The Museum exhibits and gift shop are open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. year round and Sundays in the summer from noon to 4 p.m. Stop in and look around at some of the fascinating displays about our town’s history, or if you are interested in doing some deeper research give a call and set up an appointment. I hope to see you here soon!