Naper Settlement sponsors Riverwalk tour

Naperville’s Riverwalk gets its share of foot traffic, but Naper Settlement’s Bryan Ogg doubts many have walked it and used it as physical timeline.

So he’s going to.

Ogg, the settlement’s curator of research, said road construction at the 19th-century museum village has forced him and others to be more creative and take their history-based programming off site.

The first of such projects, a streaming history walk of Naperville’s Riverwalk, will be from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, May 8. It begins at the site of Naperville’s co-founder John Naper’s estate near the corner of Webster Street and Porter Avenue.

Other points of interest along the 1.7-mile tour include the site of the Naperville Ice Cream Factory, the site of Joseph Naper’s mill and former quarry workers’ homes. The tour ends at the Naperville Fire Department Memorial on Jefferson Avenue.

“We’ll wind our way past the creamery, near Fredenhagen Park and clock tower, and through downtown as I point out backs of businesses that were once the heartbeat of Naperville,” Ogg said.

“I’ll also be showing guests the site of Naperville’s largest project, 1931’s Centennial Beach.”

Tickets are $12, $10 for Naperville Heritage Society Sustaining members.

Ogg said he will run the tour for a minimum of five and maximum of 20 guests. If successful, Ogg said, the tour will be repeated in early October.

“It’s going to be great,” he said. “There are people who have lived here forever and know a lot of history. My hope is that I’ll be able to tell them something new or fill in a crack to a story they may have heard.”