Memories Announcements
"Grew Up in Park Forest" group formed on Facebook
We are on Facebook! Become a fan of "Park Forest Historical Society" and of "1950s Park Forest House Museum!" We have joined Facebook (like us!) and have a Facebook page for the museum (like our museum page!). (Active links are further down the page.) There is a Facebook group, "Grew up in Park Forest". It formerly had some wonderful memory streams going, but that changed with Facebook's new format. It is still a place to reconnect with people who grew up here. We still accept memoirs sent to us via email. We hope to get a "Park Forest Memories " group started sometime to capture those entries, but are looking at other social networking sites. If you are interested in helping with that, contact us. We have joined Facebook (like us!) and have a Facebook page for the museum (like our museum page!).
Remember to make a copy of your memory and submit it to us, too. And, you will notice, you can write a much longer memoir to be put on our website to share with people.
If you see a topic there and want to expand on it, please share it with us! Remember, many people are not on Facebook and don't read memories, there. We may know something about your question.
Have you tried to contact our email and not received an answer?
I think the absence of emails to us is a result of the Facebook page, BUT if you have tried and we have not answered your email, please try again and put something in the subject line to draw attention to the fact. I have gotten some legitimate messages but a fraction of what I formerly received. I receive a lot of spam messages. I worry that I am missing some that don't come through as legitimate.
Thanks to all of you who have been submitting memories!
I will be adding the memoirs and sending you emails to let you know that yours is online. Hopefully this will go smoothly. When you get your email, please be sure to notify friends and relatives to come look at our site.
Let us hear from YOU!!
If you are reading and enjoying these memories, (and I can tell that you are by the web statistics) send yours along. You do not need to add your contact information for the website. Please let us know what information you want to include. Your memory can be a few sentences or an essay. Our Memories stay up for years to come.
Exploring the Park Forest Area Farm History
Be sure to read our story on this year-long project with South Suburban Genealogical and Historical Society. Our program on September 20 will be on this. Read more in News and Programs. Be sure to contact SSGHS or PFHS if you have any information on farms in the Park Forest area.
St. Irenaeus School
Do you have photos of St. Irenaeus School or your class photos from your time there? Please contact us through our link. The Class of 1959 recenetly had a reunion in Chicago and we discovered St. Irenaeus School history files at the church had inadvertently been thrown out. Please help us and St. I's reconstruct the files.
St. Anne's Catholic Church Sauk Trail and Westwood Drive
Did you or your family attend St. Anne's Catholic Church before St. Irenaeus was built? We have people looking for history and photographs of the church. Do you know what happened to the original building? The museum has a lovely painting of the church hanging in the bedroom, donated by Terry Ruehl who moved to PF in October 1948 and attended the church. Terry has since moved and passed on. If any of you can help reconstruct the history of St. Anne's please contact us.
Rich High Class of 1959 Tour
On June 13, 2009 thirty-nine or more people came through the museum on a special tour arranged by Jack and Becky Black. The reunion first went on a tour of Rich East High School, then came to the museum on a bus provided by the high school. Everyone enjoyed sharing memories of their years growing up in Park Forest.
We have since had tours for the Classes of 1960, 1962, 1964, 1966, and 1967.
Having a reunion? Be sure to book your tour of the museum as part of your activities!
1950s Museum in the News
The 1950s Museum is in GroupTour eMagazine, Spring 2013 issue, page 26. You can download the issue here.
The 1950s Museum was in the Chicago Tribune Metro section on Sunday February 3, 2008. We had a color photo and text on the front page and more photos and text on page 5. If you go to chicagotribune.com, put "1950s Museum" in the search box, and you can go to the article, but now you have to pay to read it there. If you Search the internet for "1950s Museum" the article should come up in another site where you can read it for free.
First 4-Year Graduating Class
A Member of the First 4-Year Graduating Class of Rich Township High School Remembers the Beginning of Park Forest and the First Year of Classes by Elaine Umland-Brownlee: September 15, 2001
Born in 1938, I grew up in the area surrounding Park Forest before there was a Park Forest. My family owned 5 acres in what is now the Lincolnwood section of Park Forest. Sauk Trail was a dirt road then with a few farms dotting its skinny shoulders. Lincoln Highway was paved but was only a two-lane road. It was the route to Chicago Heights for shopping and Saturday afternoon movies. Western Avenue was also paved; it led us to the city of Chicago with a frequent stop in Blue Island for White Castle hamburgers. My father and brother hunted pheasants and trapped muskrats for their pelts in the marshy fields and bogs. We raised turkeys and chickens for sale. Cornfields and daisy-strewn prairies were my playgrounds.
When I was 10 years old, I became conscious of the constant sound of heavy-duty building equipment to the south-east of us. People in the surrounding areas were not happy the land had been sold to "the developers." Change is hard to accept. In 1949, my father sold our 5 acres to the Lions' Club International who planned an international headquarters near the Illinois Central Railroad Station at 211th street. Surrounding neighbors did the same. We then moved, first to Monee briefly, and then into the town of Matteson.
In 1952, I was thrilled to find out that I would be attending this new high school called Rich Township High School, and that it would be MY class that would be the first complete 4-year graduating class! That meant that I would not have to ride a bus all the way to Bloom or Thornton high schools. But Rich High School was not ready to open its doors in the autumn of 1952, so we started classes at Faith United Protestant Church in Park Forest. It was my class of 1956 that chose the name of the high schoo'sl athletic teams, "The Rockets," and the school's colors, green and gold. History in the making! It was a joy to meet my "Park Forester" classmates-how nice they were, so bright, witty and vibrant. And the teachers were the cream of the crop.
There was a lunchroom but no cafeteria so we were permitted to leave our Faith U.P. classrooms at lunchtime to have a hot dog or hamburger at Kresge's dime store, or The Park Forest Grill. The shopping center was not yet completed, and I remember navigating muddy wooden platforms instead of sidewalks. Mr. Raymond Janota, Rich Township High School's first biology teacher, sent us on forays into the boggy fields to find frogs to dissect, or wildflowers to examine under a microscope. (We did not have the resources to have our own yearbook that first year, but many of the photos in the Yearbook of 1954 were gleaned from that first school year of 1952-53 when we were freshmen.)
The next autumn, in 1953, Rich High School opened its brand new doors to all classes, and what a high school it was! It was a "model" high school, and, as students, we were always conscious of the many visitors who had come to see what these visionaries in Park Forest had created, both as a remarkable new community and for its high school of academic excellence. Naturally, we sometimes balked that we were "on display" and compelled to be on our "best behavior" often because well-known national dignitaries visited frequently. Their arrival was announced over the public speaker, usually a few moments before they arrived! But we were also consumed with pride, a pride that has endured among all my classmates throughout the years.
Hail to thee Rich High, all hail. We still sing your praise! Happy 50th Anniversary.