Mount Prospect Historical Society

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HS Board

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Rails and Wright!

Join the Mount Prospect Historical Society at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 3, 2025 for a day-long bus trip, first to Union, IL for a morning tour of the Illinois Railway Museum, followed by an afternoon tour of one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian homes in Hampshire.  Between tours the group will stop for lunch where there is the option to purchase food at Hampshire’s Copper Barrel restaurant. You can pre-check the menu at www.barrelonstate.com.

Tour-goers will have plenty of time at the Railway Museum to peruse and possibly ride (on their own) the many trains (both diesel and steam) and streetcars on display there. Then, after lunch they will tour Frank Lloyd’s Wright’s Muirhead Farmhouse, built in 1951. Unlike the Wright homes in Chicago, Oak Park and River Forest which display Wright’s early “Prairie style” of architecture, this farmhouse shows his later Usonian architectural style. Wright built most of this style of homes outside of Illinois, so it is a treat to see one here.

Participants should be aware that the trip requires considerable walking and the ability to climb and descend bus stairs.

The cost for the day is $100 for Mount Prospect Historical Society members and $115 for non-members.

To reserve your space, please register and pay online here. Phone 847-392-9006 with questions.

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“Lucille Ball” Scheduled to Visit the Mount Prospect Historical Society

Leslie Goddard as Lucille Ball
Leslie Goddard as Lucille Ball

Leslie Goddard, a well-known and talented portrayer of historic women, will visit the Mount Prospect Historical Society’s historic Central Schoolhouse, 103 S. Maple St., at 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 15, 2025 for a first-person presentation on the life of comedienne Lucille Ball.

Attendees will enjoy tea, pastries and other treats during the presentation. 

In the 1950s, Lucille Ball captured the hearts of television audiences across the nation.  Her wacky hijinks and fearless enthusiasm kept thousands laughing.  Off-screen, she and her real-life husband Desi Arnaz launched their own television studio and pioneered new technologies.  But what does it mean when an on-screen legend clashes with her off-screen reality?

In this historic portrayal, historian and actress Leslie Goddard brings Lucy to life, paying tribute to both the true comic legend and the real woman behind the scenes.

Goddard is an award-winning actress and scholar who has been presenting history programs for more than 20 years.  She holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, specializing in American studies and U.S. history, as well as a master’s degree in theater.

A former museum director, she is the author of three books on history and currently works full-time as an author and public speaker, portraying memorable women from the past and telling historical stories so that lessons from the past are more entertaining, educational and inspiring.

The cost of the tea is $25 for Society members and $30 for non-members, plus an on-line handling fee. Take note that attendance is limited to 36 people, ages 18 and over. Advance registration is required and there are no refunds.  Visit www.mtphist.org/afternoon-teas/ to register.

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Order Your Pandemic Books Today

When a terrifying new illness – COVID-19 – struck the United States in early 2020, the Directors of the Mount Prospect Historical Society responded by carefully documenting the local Mount Prospect “pandemic experience.”  

Now this incredible treasure trove of information is being printed in a hardcover, 180-page book for researchers and history lovers of the future.  Within the book you will find a wealth of photos and memories from fellow residents, neighbors and friends that illustrate this important moment in Mount Prospect’s history. 

There are stories about how restaurateurs to nurses to ministers to funeral directors continued to do their jobs, as well as how politicians, teachers and schoolchildren coped in one Midwestern community. The Society also received permission from The Daily Herald newspaper to reprint articles which dealt with local people and events, as well as state and national news about how the pandemic was being handled.

“This book is dedicated to making sure memories of this traumatic time in Mount Prospect never fade and will serve as a record of our shared experience,” Frank Corry, President of the Society, added.

Individuals may order it for their personal collections.  It will only be available to those who order by December 31, 2023 (with delivery in early 2024).  The cost will be $25 plus shipping.

Ordering is now closed. If you purchased a book and chose local pickup, you will receive an email when your order is ready. We anticipate orders being ready sometime in January.

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Samuel “Sammy” Skobel

Samuel “Sammy” Skobel was an American roller derby skating star who opened a hot dog restaurant in Mount Prospect after his retirement from his sport.

Legally blind, Skobel was a derby star who was voted most valuable player in the league three times and inducted to the Roller Derby Hall of Fame in 1953. Skobel also held the world record for the fastest mile skated on a banked track – accomplished in 1958.

Sammy was born to Russian immigrants on April 26, 1926. His parents owned a grocery and meat market on Chicago’s Maxwell Street. 

An infection with scarlet fever at the age of four left him legally blind, with less than ten percent of his vision remaining. 

A track star at Crane Technical High School, he ran a 4:22 mile and was offered full scholarships to three universities, but those offers were rescinded when the schools learned he was legally blind. He had a hard time finding and maintaining a job after graduating from high school. In fact, he was denied a job in an electronics factory and got fired from a job repairing innertubes after just a few hours.

In 1945, Skobel tried out for the roller derby at the Chicago Coliseum but was rejected after the general manager of the Roller Derby watched him struggle to fill out the application with a magnifying glass. Instead, Skobel joined the roller derby working as a locker attendant, earning 50 cents per day.[ He worked in the center of the banked-track ring, memorizing the styles and outlines of the skaters. When he heard that the derby was holding tryouts in Chattanooga in January 1946, he traveled there by bus and was able to keep his low vision a secret during trials. He signed with the Brooklyn Red Devils in 1946, keeping his disability a secret for the first five years he played. Skobel would listen for the sound of an opponent’s skates coming up behind him, and if a skater was close he could see whether they were wearing stripes or certain colors.

In 1949, Skobel became the youngest team captain in the history of the sport. Skobel was traded to the Chicago Westerners in 1953, where he skated for twelve seasons. He skated for the IRDL Midwest Pioneers from 1964 to 1966. He had several nicknames throughout his career, including “Slammin'” Sammy Skobel and “Gunner” Skobel. 

Skobel was voted the league’s Most Valuable Player of the year three times during his skating career and was on 18 all-star teams. He was one of the first seven people inducted to the original Roller Derby Hall of Fame in 1953 and in 1958 set a world record fastest mile on a banked track, skating the mile in 2 minutes and 36 seconds.

By the end of his career, he was paid $80,000 each season. He skated his last game in May 1966, but would later serve as a consulting coach for the San Francisco Bay Bombers.

Skobel married his wife Acrivie (“Vee”) in 1952. They had two sons together, Sam Jr. and Stephen. 

After retiring from the roller derby, he opened Sammy Skobel’s Hot Dogs Plus in downtown Mount Prospect. He ran the restaurant from 1965 to 1989, when he sold it to a former employee. He also traveled as a motivational speaker, giving talks on “Creating a Positive Attitude for Life,” and advocated for other blind athletes. For instance, in 1971 he helped found the American Blind Skiing Foundation. 

In 1982, Skobel collaborated with a freelance writer to write his autobiography, titled Semka. The jacket described the book as the “story of a determined young blind man from his boyhood in Chicago’s Maxwell Street to a professional athletic career, setting a world speed skating record.”

Skobel died on June 9, 2018 at age of 92 in his home in Mount Prospect. 

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Living During COVID

by Carlos Medina

January 25, 2023

It was March of 2020 when school was canceled. I thought I was taking a full vacation, yay yay. I saw kids running excitedly out the doors with bright smiles, I was one of them. Of course, I figured I would return back to school in a couple of weeks at most, so I might as well enjoy this leap of absence. I would later find out that was not going to be the case.

The first week was amazing, free of homework, quizzes, and tests. I didn’t even talk to my friends during this first week because I felt fulfilled by my own company. However, as days passed, I began to get bored. I got tired of not doing anything productive. It was also starting to become apparent that going back to school was not a real option, and that scared me.

Establishments like Walmart, Target, and Costco, were having shortages of supplies and were mostly deserted. If I did go to stores, there would be a limit of people who entered, and in most places children were not allowed. For that reason, I stayed in my house, not going anywhere for almost a year. To say the least, I still do not know how I kept my sanity. I was irritated most of the time because I was sick of traveling from my room to the living room to the bathroom, and back again. At most, during the summer months I could go to my backyard and swing on my swing. There, on my red swing, it was like I was flying and my worries temporarily disappeared. But once the winter and fall months hit, it was another story. Of course, I was grateful that my parents still had their jobs and my life needs were met, but it still wasn’t comfortable.

By week four, I started to FaceTime my friends, and loneliness was slowly creeping up on me. Finally, by week nine or ten, remote learning began. It was so strange to transform my environment of relaxation to be a workplace. Speaking of workplaces, a couple weeks after remote learning started, my father had been let go, and was searching for a new job. My mother, who was working a small side job, was our only source of income. Things were starting to take a turn, and the worst part was that I felt it. I saw how things were spirling, and I felt my insides turn. In the beginning of remote learning, it was fine because I was given a list of things to do, and there was no camera watching me complete it. There wasn’t a strict schedule other than everything had to be due by 3pm, but I would still treat it like school because I wanted organization in the midst of all the chaos. However, although it worked for me, it did not work for everyone and so Zoom moved into the picture. Zoom was a pain for so many reasons. Primarily, having to stare at a screen non-stop for hours put a strain on my eyes, which made me buy blue light glasses. Then, the glitching on both my screen and teachers’ screens. If I was put in a breakout room, unless I was friends with the other person, it was so silent that even a whisper would be considered a shout. It was an overall terrible experience because I felt like I was being scrutinized.

Opportunities to go back to school arose, but I wanted to stay at home. I would later regret my decision because staying at home put me in a deep depressive state. It came in waves, but I would cry a lot, all the time. I started to feel anxious during remote learning, and could not focus as well as I had in the beginning. It was because I did not really socialize much with anyone other than my parents that I felt isolated only from the world and got lost in my webs of thought. It all went away, once I returned to school, but it was different. Kids were wearing masks, so I could not recognize anyone. I felt a shift in my peers emotionally too. I think after the pandemic I saw more kids with anxiety and depression than before, and it was understandable. I also felt that there was more separation between friend groups and cliques, whereas before the pandemic I felt like we were more of a connected school.

During lunch, instructions were given for students to be distant from each other, and even had us put up clear plastic paperboards to minimize chances of catching COVID. Then there was the testing; every week I had to spit in a tube sample where I would then be tested for COVID. All the changes were overwhelming me, and it made me hope that this was not going to be the new “regular.” Luckily, as time went on, life was starting to regulate like it used to be pre-pandemic. As a result, my gratitude to life became deeper than ever before. I learned to further appreciate even the seemingly small things in my life from going to the grocery store to living without a mask. To me, COVID-19 was much more than a pandemic as it was a force that changed my life from day to night. However, thankfully, I was able to live with both the Sun and Moon.

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Solve The Mystery of Nancy Drew

The Mount Prospect Historical Society will soon offer a fascinating program about America’s favorite fictional teen sleuth – Nancy Drew.

Nancy Drew program presenter Susan Becker.

Join expert Susan Becker to discover the story behind Nancy Drew at 1 p.m., Saturday, October 29, 2022 at the Society’s Central School, 103 S. Maple St., Mount Prospect.

First bursting on the scene in 1930, Nancy was an immediate success with girls yearning for a feminist role model before they even knew they wanted one. Nancy Drew Mysteries continue to be read today more than 80 years since her creation, mostly by granddaughters encouraged by grandmothers with fond memories of their time spent with the iconic girl detective.

“A magazine article spurred my interest in Nancy Drew several years ago,” says Becker. “I was intrigued

to discover the true history of Nancy and her creator.”

And don’t think that you are going to learn about Carolyn Keene!  Nancy Drew’s true creator was Edward Stratemeyer, who took the pen name of Carolyn Keene when writing his Nancy Drew stories. Stratemeyer was the most prolific author of 20th century juvenile literature of whom you have never heard! 

During his lifetime he developed over 125 different series, which in addition to the beloved Nancy Drew, included Tom Swift, the Bobbsey Twins and the Hardy Boys. Books and other items of interest will be on display.

Becker, who read her first Nancy Drew book at the age of eight, added, “I wish I hadn’t given away my own collection to a younger cousin.”

Tickets are $12 per person. Space is limited and take note that Society programs have sold out in the past. So, reservations must be made in advance. Light refreshments will be served.

For more information or to reserve your spot, please visit the Society’s website: www.mtphist.org or

phone 847-392-9006.

We’re right in the neighborhood. Come see what we have to offer!

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Celebrate the 30th Birthday of the Dietrich Friedrichs House Museum

at the Mount Prospect Historical Society

The Dietrich Friedrichs House Dedication in 1992

In September, the 1906 Dietrich Friedrichs House (101 S. Maple Street, Mount Prospect) will celebrate its thirtieth birthday as a Museum and home for the Mount Prospect Historical Society. The Museum was dedicated in 1992. Join us for a special Second Sunday on September 11, 2022 from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm to help us celebrate. 

The House, restored and decorated to represent 1917, the year Mount Prospect officially became a chartered town, will be open for tours. Many artifacts from the Friedrichs family are on display. 

Central School (103 S. Maple Street, Mount Prospect) will also be open for some birthday-themed activities. While you’re there, sign a special birthday card and grab a slice of birthday cake.

 “We’re excited to welcome people into this historical home and celebrate this momentous occasion,” said Emily Dattilo, Director of the Society. “A visit is like stepping back into the past.”

This is a free event and all ages are welcome.

 We’re right in the neighborhood. Come see what we have to offer! For more information call 847-392-9006.