Work on the Jacksonville Area Museum’s Phase II expansion project continues, and officials say a large portion of it will be ready in time for the city’s Bicentennial.
The project that began just over a year ago is making large strides and will triple the current exhibit space. Jacksonville Area Museum Board President David Blanchette says for the new space, the board has taken inspiration from a world renowned facility that’s right up the road in Springfield.
“We’re taking a page from the playbook of the Lincoln Museum in Springfield and immersing the environment. You’ll learn about early Jacksonville history. You’ll be introduced to the cabin of Mother Carson, an early settler of Morgan County. She was a midwife, and she kept a birthing book of the births she helped with. We have that original book here at the museum.
A lot of people are familiar with General Grierson, but a lot of people don’t realize that he also operated a store in Meredosia, and we are going to have a reproduction of that store inspired by the original.”
Blanchette says the Phase II section of the museum will feature a number of recreated facades from various stages of Jacksonville’s history. The Jacksonville Area Museum is utilizing one of the fabricators that worked on the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum for the current expansion.
Blanchette says Taylor Fabrications of Rantoul is currently in the process of creating the signature design aspect of the exhibit area, which mimics a signature piece of the city’s natural history.
“Very soon, we are going to begin work on our signature part of the expansion, which is realistic elm trees. As people walk into the Phase II area, they will pass under a canopy of life-like, realistic elm trees, and we will interpret the elm city history of Jacksonville through that particular exhibit.
Once you get inside the main area of the expansion, you’ll see some other life like trees including the Maggie Magnolia from the campus of MacMurray College, as well as another tree on one side of the Grierson General Store exhibit that will lead visitors into the Illinois College interpretation area.”
Other aspects of the expansion will include exhibits inside the windows of the famous building facades depicting various aspects of the city’s history, an expanded MacMurray College area, and a temporary exhibit space for special displays, including visiting exhibits. Blanchette says the museum has put in for, and hopes to host, a visit from the Illinois Traveling Underground Railroad exhibit.
Sections of the existing space are being converted into a public use space and an area for examining items that are brought in for donation. Blanchette says a new welcome desk is also being built in memory of former Museum Board President, the late Bob Chipman.
Blanchette says the museum is also working with the Jacksonville 200th Birthday Committee and will soon display several items from the recently unearthed Central Park Time Capsule.
The Jacksonville Area Museum is located in the old post office at 301 East State Street and is open Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, and Sundays from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm.