Williamson County Illinois Historical Society

We have been taking advantage of the museum being closed and warm weather to make some improvements at the museum. In addition to recently clearing out our old book store and moving it to the foyer with improved lighting, several other changes have been made.

A utility sink downstairs which was unusable due to having no drain now has been tied into the drain pipes making it functional. All of the remaining shelving that was left in the old book store has now been moved. Two sections were cut from 8 foot high units down to 4 foot high units creating 20 feet of four foot shelving in the attic storeroom. The 12 foot wide 8 foot high unit was dismantled and reassembled in the second floor storage room. This revealed the windows in the old book store for the first time in over 20 years or more.

White pegboard was added to two closet displays on the second floor and two dumbwaiter displays on the first and second floors making them more attractive and easier to rearrange without having to add nails or screws. The tops and bottoms in the dumbwaiter displays were also replaced with more substantial material.

Many of the displays which were accessible have now had hinges with locks and hasps put on them to secure them.

We are also in the process of moving displays around to create new and interesting things for visitors to see.

President, Sam Lattuca, inducts WHCS members, Mary Jean and Clarence DeMattei into the WCHS Honor Roll

A recently adopted award for the Williamson County Historical Society got its first inductees last week. The award called the WCHS Honor Roll is awarded in appreciation of dedicated service to the society. It serves as a reminder of the amount of hard work and dedication that some of our volunteers put into the society.

Husband and wife team, Mary Jean and Clarence DeMattei have both been dedicated workers at the museum for the last 13 years and are good examples of the Honor Roll’s reason for existence. Mary Jean served as museum curator and Clarence has served as a board member since 2003. Mary Jean often spent her time cleaning and taking care of displays while Clarence took care of the physical maintenance on the building.

The society can’t thank them enough for their selfless service over the years, but we can honor their service and selflessness.

We recently completed a project on our agenda, the movement of our old book store into a new location more accessible in the foyer. The old book store used to occupy a 12 x 7 foot room all by itself which we have future designs on for use as a first floor bathroom and a utility closet with a utility sink. Two new lights were added to the foyer which has always been too dark and equipment was moved away to install more compact newspaper racks and shelving which condensed all of our book store into a more compact but usable space.

Our old book store always seemed to be missed by visitors because it was out of sight. Now that the book store is right at the entrance our books and offerings will be hard to miss. There is also a bench seat conveniently beside the steps which means visitors can sit and peruse the books before buying. The change has created a much more open and well lit entrance to the museum.

This also gave us the chance to inventory our stock. The society plans on making more of an effort to advertise what books we have on hand for sale. At the moment we do offer a list under the Book Store Tab on the website and we plan on running specials on select books in the near future.