Veterans Memorial Hall and Museum, Illinois, United States

4Stewart D 5:00 PM Jan 4, 2020

A small but nice collection of stuff.
A small but nice collection of military and other stuff. It makes a nice side trip to or from the Library if you are walking down town.

4interceptpubs 5:00 PM Jun 15, 2019

Impressive memorial to Winnebago County veterans
In the spring of 1899, the commander of the local GAR chapter presented the Winnebago County Board of Supervisors with a petition signed by over 200 veterans requesting construction of a memorial hall for the county's veterans. After some political wrangling, the question of funding construction of the hall was put to the voters of the county in 1900 who overwhelmingly (by over a two to one margin) approved the measure. The result, completed in 1903, was the first such memorial in the state, if not the country. It is unusual in that it is not simply a monument, but a multi-purpose structure with elements of memorial, museum, and meeting hall. In his dedication speech for the hall, President Theodore Roosevelt declared, "No more fitting memorial could be erected to the men who fought, than a hall such as this....a hall beautiful because of the uses to which it is consecrated." With a design reminiscent of a classic Greek temple built in Indiana limestone, the building has two floors and a basement. The main floor has a central great hall flanked by a large library (today more of a museum gallery) and office space on one side and a grand staircase to the second floor, two large "placard" rooms with rolls of veterans names, and artifact storage space on the other. The second floor is a large auditorium with a stage facing a large open space with wood plank flooring (that can be filled with chairs for a performance, tables for a banquet, or just used as a dance floor) and surrounded by a balcony with theater style seats. The basement is similar in floor plan to the main floor with the large central hall, a large meeting room (in place of the library) and office space to one side, and HVAC/boiler bays and restrooms on the other side. The public spaces in the basement and on the main level have many cabinets full of artifacts, photos, and information about the veterans from the county and the wars in which they've fought - not just from the Civil War, but also the Spanish-American War, World Wars, Vietnam, up to the recent military actions in the Middle East. We were particularly moved by some of the personal stories presented in these cases. In one room, we found a lengthy story about Italian immigrant Joseph Prinzivalle who joined the Army heading off to World War I, in part to gain U.S. citizenship. While he was a cook, he did see his share of action dodging artillery shells and even surviving a gas attack (that may contributed to his premature death in 1949). He participated in about all of the major campaigns where Americans fought: Second Marne, Meuse-Argonne, St. Mihiel, etc. In another case, we read about a Belgian amateur historian who tracked down the details of the life of Rockford native SSgt. Charles "Buddy" Ollman, a radioman in the 92nd BG who died when his B-17 crashed in Belgium after a midair collision in March 1945. The historian eventually wrote a book around Ollman's correspondence to his family back in Illinois. Of course, there are also plenty of interesting artifacts on display, not just uniforms and weapons but even Theodore Roosevelt's chair from the rostrum at the hall's dedication back in 1903. We spent between 45 minutes to an hour here looking at all of the items on display and the building itself - it was very interesting.