Schaumburg to study potential of local history museum at current site of Trickster Center

Schaumburg officials intend to embark on a yearlong feasibility study for a local history museum occupying the village-owned building the Native American-themed Trickster Cultural Center has leased for $1 a year since 2005.

But the idea may involve a misunderstanding.

Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly on Friday said he believed the nonprofit center had a second, larger location in Chicago that it might already be using more.

But that isn’t so, Trickster Cultural Center Executive Director Gina Roxas said.

The center’s board of directors released a statement Friday.

“For over 20 years, Trickster Cultural Center has proudly served the community through Native American arts, culture and education,” it said. “While this is not a Trickster decision, we remain committed to our mission and are counting on the village of Schaumburg to continue supporting what is best for the community and all parties concerned.”

Dailly believed the organization had a larger space in Chicago where major events were held and where some prior exhibits in Schaumburg had moved.

“If they don’t, that’s news to me,” he said.

The idea of a local museum came about as Dailly and others pondered what to do with a number of historic items the village had acquired over the decades, much of which lies in storage.

One recent example is a bottle he was given from the Schaumburg-branded beer brewed in the community in the ‘60s and early ‘70s.

“I get stuff like that on occasion,” Dailly said. “The question becomes what to with this stuff. Generally speaking, we don’t have a good place for it.”

The 7,550-square-foot building at 190 S. Roselle Road originally housed Lake-Cook Farm Supply and was in poor shape when the village acquired it through the redevelopment of Town Square at the intersection of Schaumburg Road in the ‘90s.

After its own rehabilitation, it was leased first to the Chicago Athenaeum and then for the past 21 years to the Trickster Center.

Now the village is considering its own use of it.

At last month’s budget hearing, Village Manager Brian Townsend said a museum might better consolidate the community’s fragmented preservation of history.

Efforts have long been divided among the Schaumburg Township Historical Society, the Schaumburg Township District Library and the village itself.

Dailly said a few key questions stand out.

“First of all, do we have enough stuff?” he asked. “And then, what size museum? I would really like to know how much stuff we really have.”