Glencoe Historical Society
at the
Eklund History Center & Garden

Glencoe’s second graders became historians today as they spent the day learning about Glencoe, its history and architecture.

Ending a month-long study period about “My Community,” the second graders had four stops on an historic tour: downtown Glencoe, the Eklund History Center and Garden, and two Victorian homes, one each on Greenwood Avenue and Glencoe Drive. The activities followed setting up a mini-museum at South School, learning about Glencoe and its architectural diversity, and seeing a slide show titled “Then and Now.”

The second grade history and architecture program has been co-sponsored by the Glencoe Historical Society and the Glencoe PTO Cultural Arts Committee for more than a half dozen years. The program won an Award of Excellence from the Illinois Association of Museums in late 2006. This year’s PTO program chairman were Mary Gover and Susie Issacson.

Second graders integrate learning about Glencoe in the My Community unit. Today they were escorted by parent volunteers on tours of downtown Glencoe, comparing pictures of “then” with the realities of “now.” While the buildings have not changed much, the students remarked on the unpaved streets and horse-drawn buggies of then compared with today’s paved roadways, the names of the stores inside the buildings that have changed over time—for instance, the Glencoe State Bank that became the Glencoe National Bank and is now the Harris Bank—and the uses of the buildings that have changed—from a hardware store to a bagel shop.

Two homes were opened up. At the Javores’ on Greenwood, students learned about the history of a family that has lived in the village for more than six generations, while at the Smiths’ house, they were told about some of the first Glencoe settlers, including Matthew Coe who built the first iteration of the house and Walter Gurnee, who bought it from Coe, upgraded it, and when the railroad came through named the town Glencoe, in the mid-1850s.

At the historical society, the children learned about Anson Taylor, the area’s first settler, who brought his family in an ox-drawn scow up the lake from Chicago to what was then called Taylorsport; about Glencoe schools—all nine of them!; about Carl Eklund's workshop and Glencoe businesses. They also had a fine time figuring out how old-fashioned items such as a rotary phone or rug beater worked and what today's equivalent might be – cell phone and vacuum cleaner.

Luckily for all, the rain held off until all 150 of the children had visited both homes and taken the downtown tours. They were able to sit in the garden to enjoy snacks provided by the PTO committee.