Historical Society Newsletter

The Ouilmette Heritage is the thrice-yearly newsletter of the Wilmette Historical Society. This fun resource features essays about intriguing events and personalities in Wilmette and North Shore history (two example articles are available below), descriptions of upcoming programs and special events, what's new and exciting in the Museum's collections, and announcements of new and forthcoming exhibits and programs at the Museum. To become a Ouilmette Heritage subscriber, simply join the Wilmette Historical Society and enjoy all of the benefits of membership.

Featured Articles from Past Issues

Cold Room

The Cold War on Washington Avenue
By Patrick Leary, Ph.D., Curator, Wilmette Historical Museum

By 1950, as American troops fought in the Korean winter and the chill of the Cold War settled over the world, U.S. Army planners had come to realize that they needed to know much more about the icy regions that lay between America and the Soviet Union. Most urgently, they needed to know how to build things—roads, radar stations, underground bunkers, airfields, missile silos—in places where the ground is forever frozen, the ice is a mile deep, and the snowfall never melts. This intensive research program required a special laboratory like no other, and in 1951 the Army found just the right place for it: an abandoned laundry at 1215 Washington Avenue in Wilmette, half a block west of Green Bay Road. (From Volume 30, Number 3, Winter 2006/2007, pp. 3-4) Read Entire Article

Wilmette Architecture:
A Look at the Craftsman Style
by Vicki Birenberg

"...Wilmette has many examples of Craftsman-style housing since the period from 1900-1920 was a time of significant growth in the Village. These houses are primarily bungalows and foursquares. Some of Wilmette's best examples of the Craftsman style can be found in a very cohesive grouping of fifteen houses on Oak Circle." (From Volume 25, Number 1, March 2001, pp. 2-3) Read Entire Article

Fred Egloff

Wilmette's Auto Sportsmen
by Fred R. Egloff

The automobile has undoubtedly been a major factor in shaping the history of the twentieth century. Auto sportsmen played a vital role in developing the auto into the reliable means of transportation we take for granted and enjoy today. Because of this, it is indeed surprising that they have remained for the most part an ignored and unrecorded part of our Wilmette heritage. It was prior to the start of this century that an automobile drove through Wilmette for the very first time. On Saturday, November 2, 1895, Oscar Mueller, at the wheel of his imported Benz, traveled south on Sheridan Road.
(From Volume 23, Number 5, December, 1999, pp. 2-3) Read Entire Article