Ottawa History Lecture Series to kick off Sunday

The year-long Ottawa History Lecture Series, sponsored by the Ottawa Historical and Scouting Heritage Museum, gets underway Sunday.

All 12 of the lectures in the series will begin at 2 p.m. at the museum, 1100 Canal St., Ottawa.

Mollie Perrot, the director of the scouting museum, will be leading off the series with a presentation about Ottawa’s Magnificent Mansions of the Past, which once graced the North Bluff. Among those grand structures featured that have been lost to the past either by fire or the wrecking ball, are the homes of industrialist Solomon King, Illinois Supreme Court Judge John Dean Caton and the Boys Scouts of America founder William D. Boyce. Also featured will be “The Oaks,” the well-known home of Civil War General W.H.L. Wallace that was once operated as a museum by the state of Illinois.

Admission is $5 per person. Season tickets for all 12 monthly lectures may be obtained for $50. Tickets may be purchased at the Ottawa Historical and Scouting Heritage Museum ahead of time or at the door. Museum members may purchase individual lecture tickets for $4 and season tickets for $40.

February’s lecture will be Sunday, Feb. 26, and will feature local historian Dave Mumper, who will speak about Old Downtown Ottawa: Blocks, Buildings and More.