Rosemont Hummel Museum finds new home

A collection of porcelain Hummel figurines of Bavarian children and religious themes once treasured by the late Rosemont Mayor Donald E. Stephens will find its new home in a shopping center.

The Donald E. Stephens Museum of Hummels, which boasts the world's largest public collection of M.I. Hummel figurines outside the Goebel Hummel factory in Germany, is presently housed in the lobby of the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center at 5555 N. River Road.

The Rosemont village board Wednesday morning decided to move the museum to a vacant storefront in the Rosemont Plaza Shopping Center, 9511 Higgins Road between River Road and the Tri-State Tollway.

"This will make it a much more friendly place to be able to visit when the shows are going on," said Rosemont Mayor Bradley Stephens, son of the late mayor Stephens who built the town. "There was always the idea that eventually it would be in either a stand-alone or another location. We think it will be a better fit there."

The late Mayor Stephens purchased his first Hummel figurine while on a trip to Germany in the 1960s and got hooked.

"He just became really entrenched in collecting some of these pieces," Stephens said. "It's a very neat little collection."

Over time, the elder Stephens collected thousands of pieces from individual collectors, which he donated to the village in 1984 to create the museum.

It will take a couple of months to get the new museum site ready. On Wednesday, the village board approved spending roughly $456,000 to renovate the building, which is larger than the current space.

Stephens said the new location will provide more breathing room for the collection that is presently jam-packed in glass display cases. Certain figurines also will have accompanying plaques at the new site, providing information about their significance.

Stephens said he won't carry on in his father's footsteps and take up collecting Hummels because the newer pieces have lost "some of its traditional look."