Dietrich Friedrichs House Museum

The Dietrich Friedrichs house was built in 1906. This Victorian farmhouse is furnished to reflect the year 1917, as that was the year of the village's incorporation.

Bessie Friedrich Barnes, a long-time resident of Mount Prospect grew up in the house. Ms. Barnes' recollections and personal artifacts were crucial to the creation of this exhibit.

The two-story house has a parlor, dining room, kitchen, pantry, nursery, bathroom, and two bedrooms that portray the lifestyle of the Friedrichs' at the beginning of this century. The Friedrichs were immigrants from Germany, a very common ancestry among Mount Prospect's first settlers.

Historic Garden / Sensory Garden

The Historical Society's Garden Restoration Committee was formed in 1988 to recreate the museum grounds. Members of Mount Prospect's Garden Club, Historical Society, Village Park District, along with a landscape architect, plant nurseries, and interested citizens, helped plan a garden that resembled one from the 1917 era. This year was chosen, because it is the year of the Village's incorporation, and the Dietrich Friedrich House Museum is restored to reflect life during that time. Bessie Friedrich Barnes shared her memories of the trees, shrubs, and flowers that were in the yard when she was growing up in the house. The committee also did extensive research on the gardens and plants of that era. After four years of planning, then countless hours of weeding, planting, and watering of our artifacts, the dedication for the garden was held on September 12, 1992.

A Sensory Garden ,dedicated in the fall of 1993, was created to give the visually impaired an opportunity to learn of botanic history through taste, smell, and touch. Visitors can also read about the plants on the Braille plaques placed in this garden.

Francis Bacon wrote, "the garden is the purest of all human pleasures." Enjoy your time in our garden. It has the power to stimulate the senses with its vibrant colors and smells, while stimulating the mind as it illustrates an aspect of the Post-Victorian era.

 

Videos

Working with MPTV and an Illinois Public Museums Grant, the Mount Prospect Historical Society developed a series of short educational videos on the history of the community. Two of these videos are specifically designed for use in classrooms. History is Everywhere: Mount Prospect Roots is a simple basic history of the community that looks at the lives of three families that have lived in the community over time. The video is meant for third grade students, although older students would probably also enjoy it. History is Everywhere: Beginnings in Mount Prospect is designed for fifth grade students, it looks at three important time periods in American history and reviews how changes in these times effected Mount Prospect. Each of these videos is slightly longer than a half an hour and the videos are available to borrow from the Mount Prospect Historical Society for free.

Tours of the Dietrich Friedrichs House Museum

As you may know, the Mount Prospect Historical Society operates a public museum in downtown Mount Prospect. This museum is housed in the Dietrich Friedrichs house and has a permanent exhibit of life in the community in 1917. The museum offers a chance for students to see how life was different in Mount Prospect a hundred years ago and make history come to life. Group tours of the museum have to be prescheduled, we do limit the number of people who can be on a tour, and there is a $1 per child charge for group tours. Tours last from half an hour to forty-five minutes, depending on time constraints.

Interactive Tours of the Museum

If a school or social group is looking for a more hands-on experience with local history, the Mount Prospect Historical Society offers interactive history tours. In this program, the class is split into two groups; one goes through the Museum on a tour while the other goes to our Education Center and is given a hands-on lesson on the different ways a house was run before electricity and modern conveniences. The two groups then switch, so that each is able to enjoy both parts. Interactive tours of the museum have to be prescheduled, we do limit the number of people who can be on a tour, and there is a $2 per child charge for group tours. Interactive tours last for about one hour.

Local Government Exhibit

During the course of the year, the Mount Prospect Historical Society mounts three temporary exhibits that complement our permanent display. In March we will be displaying the first of our temporary exhibits for 2003. This will be a display on the history, development, and functioning of the local government. Teachers could use this display to discuss both local and national government, and combine a visit to see the exhibits with a tour of the museum.

On-line Activities

Working with the technical assistance of the Mount Prospect Public Library the Mount Prospect Historical Society is developing an extensive on-line resource for students, educators, and individuals of all ages. This project should be on line in the next few months and will have a large number of activities, lesson plans, history resources and guides for larger projects that will all be available free over the Internet.

Go to www.mtphistory.org

Research possibilities

If teachers are interested in developing lesson plans that focus on a specific aspect of local history, we have extensive records that they may access for research and development. If an educator would like to work with advanced students on displaying how different resources can be used for research projects we can also set up simple displays of our resources and how they can be used.

Talks on demand

With a highly qualified staff, we can put together talks on different aspects of local history, local businesses, regional planning, prominent individuals, and Mount Prospect organizations at the request of schools. Advanced scheduling is required and a fee may apply.

Third Grade Textbooks

The Mount Prospect Historical Society, in co-operation with local teachers, the Illinois Historical Museum and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources published, a short history of Mount Prospect text book in 2000. The texts are designed to be used as the basis for a series of lessons on local history for students in third grade or above. These short booklets were written with an awareness of the Illinois State Social Science Standards for 2000 to make it easier for teachers to incorporate into existing curriculum. These short books, as well as teacher's editions and Spanish language texts are provided to local educators free of charge.

 

General Research Collection: We have an extensive collection of material on subjects related to Mount Prospect in our general research collection. This collection is constantly growing, both through the acquisition of new information and through the processing of backlogged material. Below are descriptions of categories with an approximation of the size of each. Buildings by Addresses: We have files on roughly 250 buildings, organized by address. These are primarily files on individual houses, although there are also files on some commercial and municipal buildings. Every house that has been on our Holiday House Walk has a file, as well as many other houses that have appeared in newspapers, oral histories or in a historical article, some files are extensive and some are quite small.

Business: Our collection holds approximately 150 files on different businesses in Mount Prospect. This includes information on both current businesses and historic businesses.

Churches: We have files on about 45 different churches in Mount Prospect, including some that have been disbanded.

Development: In our Development files we have a series of organizational subgroups to make the history of the community's growth more accessible. In this category, there are files on the general development of Mount Prospect, development of the Northwest suburbs, and downtown redevelopment plans. There is also related information on the development and history of the rail lines, maps of the community from 1874 to 2002, material on 30 different neighborhoods, and at least plat dates for virtually every sub-development in Mount Prospect.

Events: We have a small collection of material on significant dates in the community's history, such as village anniversaries, significant weather events, and community events.

Newsprint Collection: The Historical Society recently acquired a large collection of newsprint from the Mount Prospect Public Library. We are still in the process of organizing and this material, but it adds to our existing collection. We have a large amount of newsprint on significant dates and events in the community and region. We also have a large collection of newsprint from Chicago and Illinois papers that discuss national events. These papers have a value for those interested in local history by showing how the Chicago area or the upper midwest responded to some of the largest national news stories in the country.

Organizations: The Society keeps information on nonprofit, charitable, and educational organizations, as well as information on groups in the community. Some files are quite extensive, while others are simply newspaper clippings.

People: We have information on around 500 people and families, who have a connection to Mount Prospect. Some of these files are simply an obituary or an article on a significant life event while others files could make up complete biographies.

Schools: In our collection, we have a file on every school that is standing or has ever stood in Mount Prospect. We also have files on different school districts in which Mount Prospect students are enrolled.

Special Collections: We have extensive collections on certain subjects that are stored outside of our General Research files but are still considered a part of that collection. These include information on: The Mount Prospect Chamber of Commerce, The Mount Prospect Midget Football League, The Campfire Girls, Randhurst Shopping Center, the local celebration of the National Bicentennial, and former Mayor Clarence Schlaver.

Village: The Society has files on Municipal Departments, village politics by year and a (incomplete) collection of village newsletters. We have large amounts of material on some departments, such as the fire department and smaller files on some of the less high profile departments.

MPHS: The Society also has many files on the history of the Society. This includes detailed information on our museums, restoration projects, events, fundraisers, members, directors and publicity.

Photo Collections: Our collection of photographs is stored separately from our General Research Collection, but uses the same basic categories. Roughly estimated, we have approximately 10,000 photographs, being strongest in photographs of people, businesses, schools, Randhurst, and MPHS. We recently purchased a photographic copy stand through a donation from the Rotary Club; this allows us to make negatives of existing photographs. With this new equipment, we can reproduce photographs much more efficiently and will be using it to expand our photographic collection in the coming months.

Artifact Collection: We have an extensive collection of artifacts that relate to Mount Prospect, the development of the mid-west, and suburban growth. This collection is made up of roughly 6800 objects and includes farming equipment, household utensils, architectural details, textiles, art works, promotional material from different Mount Prospect businesses, personal collections, and period furniture. This collection is stored separately from our research collection, organized differently, and kept with different rules of legal guardianship. We have three separate long-term storage areas that are used to house the artifact collection. The material in our artifact collection is available to the public under supervision however; our long-term storage areas are not open to the public. This means that an individual has to make prior arrangements to have material that they are interested in brought to an area where they can view it. These arrangements can be made through the MPHS office.