Village Hall Changes Exhibition at Library
Posted on May 24, 2007 in categories Exhibits, Press Releases
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With the Glencoe Village Hall closed to the public for all but the most urgent work, the Glencoe Historical Society has mounted an exhibit at the public library to show the history of the home to government since 1898, including the plans for the newest update.
The first village hall was located on Vernon Avenue. Begun in 1898, there were three additions to the hall as the government added a fire station (for the horse-drawn engines), a police department and a garage. For a time, the library was located upstairs. But by the 1920s, people began to look at alternatives to the heavy buildings.
In the 1920s, famed architect Phillip Maher and his son created a plan for Glencoe that included depressed railroad tracks (as was done in Winnetka) and Beaux-Arts style limestone buildings around a village park. The plans were never implemented, but it takes viewers back to the City Beautiful movement embraced by Daniel Burnham to look at them as presented in the local newspaper of the time and read about them in an article written by Maher. Presumably, the plans never came to fruition due to the lack of funds.
In 1948, another effort was made and plans on display illustrate what government officials thought they needed in a new building. It was not until 1953 that what we know as the Village Hall today was built, not on Vernon Avenue as before, but behind the library. The new village hall was dedicated by Village Pres. William Hagenah and trustees.
Today’s plans change the interior configuration of Village Hall to provide more space to service residents who are building or remodeling homes and to provide additional space for the new technology needed in the public safety area. The diagrams illustrate where the new conference rooms will be located and how the space will be transformed.
The Glencoe Historical Society thanks the public library for its cooperation in making the space available. The exhibit will be up through June. Village Hall is expected to be completed by summer.