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Lecture – November 13, 2022

“Joseph L. Silsbee, His Employees, and Chicago’s Suburban Ideal

Presented by Christopher Payne

Sunday, November 13

2:00 – 3:00 p.m.

Kenilworth Assembly Hall

Free for members, $5 per person for non-members

Christopher Payne, an architect from Oak Park, will present a lecture on Joseph L. Silsbee, the influential American architect.

In the 1880s, J. L. Silsbee’s office was busy with commissions that established some of Chicago’s first high-class suburbs. The most notable of these was Edgewater, where Silsbee made his own home. Working on those early designs were a group of remarkable young draftsmen and architects, including George Maher, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Irving Gill, but these three figures just scratch the surface of talent that made Silsbee’s practice so successful at the time.

This presentation will look at Silsbee’s work in 1880s suburban Chicago and beyond to better understand his personal design interests. It will also follow the work of his many employees years later as they established their own practices and explored a variety of individual design expressions in suburban Elmhurst, Oak Park, Beverly, LaGrange, and Kenilworth.

Register here:

Ginny Anderson Memorial – October 9, 2022

Sunday, October 9

2:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Dedication at 2:45 p.m.

Kenilworth Historical Society and Memorial Park

415 Kenilworth Ave.

Join us for an event in honor of Virginia “Ginny” Anderson, the Kenilworth Historical Society’s first Executive Director from 2010-2021 and longtime Board member. Light refreshments will be available and the dedication of Ginny Anderson’s memorial tree in Memorial Park will take place at 2:45 p.m. A new portrait of Ginny Anderson will also be on display, kindly donated by her classmates of the Joseph Sears School Class of 1959.

RSVP: (847) 251-2565 or kenilworthhistory@sbcglobal.net

Trivia Night – October 6, 2022

Thursday, October 6

5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Kenilworth Assembly Hall

Free for members, $5 per party for non-members

Test your knowledge of local and general trivia with your family or a group of friends! Drinks and pizza by the slice will be available for purchase.

Permanent Exhibit Coming Fall 2021

Kenilworth Historical Society’s first ever permanent exhibit will open at the start of Fall 2021!

Keep an eye out on our website and social media to see more announcements about the upcoming exhibit. The exhibit will give an overview of Kenilworth’s history and its development to provide a context that will allow us to dive deeper into the stories and subjects of our temporary exhibits. The permanent exhibit will include interactive digital experiences that will allow you to explore photos, maps, timelines, and detailed histories of Kenilworth’s most famous buildings and more. The digital experiences will continue to grow over the years as more and more content is added.

Roaring 1920s in Kenilworth

The George Maher exhibit has been taken down and the walls repainted to make way for the new exhibit that explores the 1920s in Kenilworth. The exhibit highlights the fashion, lifestyle, and community during the entire decade.

In the aftermath of the First World War, the entire world was shaken and underwent a lot of changes socially, politically, and technologically. Kenilworth was no exception. In this exhibit we look at those changes within Kenilworth and highlight the fashion, lifestyle, and community during the decade.

In this era we saw the prohibition of alcohol, increase in global wealth and organized crime, Flapper fashion, the Charleston, Jazz, and women finally getting the rights of citizenship. This was the decade of extravagance, opulence, and independence which gave rise to styles like Art Deco and clothing that reflected these new social freedoms. In Kenilworth, these changes in society were very prominent. Going to the Assembly Hall on any given weekend was guaranteed to be a good time with dances, jazz performances, and plays happening on a regular basis. Rumors of speakeasies and illegal alcohol distributors were rampant in Chicago and the entire North Shore. The ‘20s also saw the expansion of Kenilworth with the annexation to the west and the acquisition of Mahoney Farm, which opened up more property lots and what is now known as Mahoney Park Wildflower and Bird Sanctuary.

Visit the new exhibit to explore the past, the changes that came to Kenilworth, and see the opulence that was life in the village during the 1920s.

Visit Kenilworth Centennial Structures

Our Kenilworth Centennial Structures permanent exhibit is accessible online or at the Historical Society on our table display. Our previous wall display of Kenilworth’s centennial structures has been updated to a digital platform to allow for easier updating of information as structures reach the centennial mark, searchable information by street, date built, or architect, and additional information and photographs. The improved accessibility to information on Kenilworth’s centennial structures is a beneficial gateway to those conducting house histories.

Kenilworth Centennial Structures (Digital Exhibit)

Lamppost with Centennial Exhibit on tablet, KHS

Our Kenilworth Centennial Structures permanent exhibit is accessible online or at the Historical Society on our table display.

Our previous wall display of Kenilworth’s centennial structures has been updated to a digital platform to allow for easier updating of information as structures reach the centennial mark, searchable information by street, date built, or architect, and additional information and photographs. The improved accessibility to information on Kenilworth’s centennial structures is a beneficial gateway to those conducting house histories.

The new digital platform also includes an interactive map of Kenilworth showing the location of all centennial structures. Witness the growth of Kenilworth by using the sliding timeline to see new structures as they were built year by year! Meet us under the lamp post to illuminate your knowledge of Kenilworth’s centennial structures and be sure to ask what additional information we might have in our archives.

Kenilworth Centennial Structures is updated every year to track the new centennial structures. The exhibit will be getting an upgrade in the near future to a larger display as a part of our upcoming permanent exhibit on Kenilworth’s history.

Exhibit is being updated.