Lombard Historical Society to host 'Dining with the Dead' Oct. 10-11
Get up close and personal with historic Lombard residents - portrayed by re-enactors - and enjoy a delicious catered buffet dinner while "Dining with the Dead at the Lombard Cemetery" from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Oct. 10-11.
Professional actors and volunteers will inhabit some of the more colorful former residents of Lombard, including Big Bill Hammerschmidt, Harriet and Susan Peck and Reuben and Anna Mink.
Proceeds from this event benefit the Kiwanis Club of Lombard and the Lombard Historical Society.
For everyone's safety, please wear sensible shoes as it will be a candlelit event and the terrain is uneven. No children under 14 and no baby carriers or strollers please.
Tickets are $55 and may be purchased online at lombardhistory.org, or by calling (630) 629-1885 and picking them up in person at Lombard Historical Society, 23 W. Maple St. in Lombard
Party like the Victorians! Picnicking in the cemetery near the dearly departed was a popular social custom during the Victorian era.
Whole families would pack up the picnic basket, chairs and blankets and head to the cemetery and spend the day.
"Dining with the Dead" adds a modern twist to that tradition by celebrating the dead with a good meal at a respectable hour.
The buffet dinner includes boneless chicken breast, meatballs, pasta salad, macaroni and cheese, tavern potatoes, sweet orchard spinach salad and garlic bread. Hot cider and water are the beverages.
The guided tour of the cemetery and its residents will start at 7 p.m.
The first people were buried in Babcock's Grove Cemetery, now Lombard Cemetery, in 1851. Many of the headstones bear names of founding families, including Hammerschmidt, Wilson, Loy and Peck. Plenty of local veterans are represented as well.
There are known to be 36 soldiers buried in the cemetery, representing the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II and the Korean War. The Lombard Cemetery Restoration Committee, consisting of the Village of Lombard, the Lombard Historical Society, the Lombard Historical Commission, the Lombard Garden Club and the Lombard Park District, work in collaboration to restore and maintain the cemetery.
Hours for the Peck Homestead through Oct. 8 are 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays, 1 to 8 p.m. Thursdays, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Hours for the Victorian Cottage and the Carriage House are 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Friday, and 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturdays.
The Lombard Historical Society celebrates Lombard's heritage by collecting, preserving, and interpreting the history of Lombard and operates the Victorian Cottage Museum, the Carriage House and the Society's Archives at 23 W. Maple St., and the Sheldon Peck Homestead, a National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Site, at 355 E. Parkside Ave. Both the Victorian Cottage and Peck Homestead host activities and groups and are open for tours several days a week. For more information about membership and volunteer and donor opportunities, visit lombardhistory.org or phone (630) 629-1885.