Streatorland Museum will move across from City Park, thanks to donation

The Streatorland Museum soon will have a new home across from the City Park, thanks to a donation from a retired doctor.

Dr. Glen Ricca donated his former office building at 109 E. Elm St. to the Streatorland Historical Society, which operates the city’s history museum.

The museum now is housed in an old brick home on the 300 block of South Vermillion Street, within a residential area about two blocks south of downtown. Along with being outside of the downtown, the museum has more exhibits than space, said Streatorland Historical Society President Dave Reed.

“We’re very excited and grateful of the donation,” Reed said. “This will allow us to present a more professional museum.”

The space in the new building is handicapped accessible and about 50% larger than the house the museum has occupied, Reed said.

“We have been very grateful to Bob and Doug Dieken and their family for letting us use the property for the past 36 years,” Reed said of the Vermillion Street house. “Their generosity for 36 years, and not having to pay rent or a mortgage, has allowed us to accept Dr. Ricca’s donation and make this move a reality.”

Reed said the former doctor’s office is close to a turn-key operation, but it will need some light construction before the museum can move in, including removing sinks in exam rooms to transform them into exhibit areas. The historical society is hoping to open the new museum by mid-spring and Reed said items may start being moved at the end of next month. In mid-November paperwork for the transaction was finalized and the historical society took ownership in early December.

“There is a lot to move,” Reed said.

The new location — across Route 23 from City Park — will provide more exposure to the museum, including drawing in visitors from summer festivals at the park. Reed said the plan is to have a gift shop in the building’s former waiting room and to have it open every Friday and Saturday.

A question remains what the historical society will do with the caboose on display in the backyard of the current museum, but Reed said the Diekens have told the historical society there is no pressure to move it, also offering to allow the historical society to continue using the house as long as it needs.

“We would love to see the caboose on display near the new museum, but that is something we will have to figure out,” Reed said.

Ricca said his former office was always believed to be a great possibility for the Streatorland Museum and after the building didn’t sell for years, the donation made sense.

“I’m excited to see what they do with it,” Ricca said. “We just wanted somebody to use it and for the community to be able to use it.”

Reed said the community’s donations to the historical society remind him of the city’s founder Ralph Plumb, who purchased land, furnished the building and donated Streator High School to the community, among other projects in the city.

“It reminds me of Col. Plumb,” Reed said. “It’s so good to see such good people in our community.”