Palatine Historical Society erecting plaques downtown
Some history buffs want you to flash back to what life used to be like in downtown Palatine.
More than 130 years ago at the southeast corner of Brockway and Slade streets, for instance, you’d find the Loges & Schultz blacksmith shop. Or if you jump to the turn of the century, a tavern and later the Kunze saloon were there.
The spirits would flow until 1919 when Prohibition led a doctor to transform the building into a private hospital and nursing school. Shops and offices moved in around 1950 and have operated there ever since.
That brief glimpse into history is one of several the Palatine Historical Society hopes to offer by erecting plaques that list a site’s former tenants.
“We’ve wanted to do this for years, especially because so many of the buildings have come down,” said Marilyn Pedersen, coordinator of the Clayson House Museum on Palatine Road. “We want people to know and appreciate what used to be there.”
Organizers hope all six plaques will be installed within the next week or so. They’ll be located at various buildings on Bothwell, Brockway and Slade streets, as well as Palatine Road.
Pedersen said they had hoped to place the plaques on the sidewalks, but village officials were concerned about creating a tripping hazard.
Palatine Historical Society President Joe Petykowski said the group was able to purchase the plaques due to the money raised from the unforeseen large turnout at last year’s inaugural Palatine History Crawl, which drew a couple hundred people.
A second crawl will take place from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 7. The event will feature stories, historical characters and pictures at eight new locations throughout the downtown area.
One stop will be the former Mia Cucina restaurant, where Pedersen said a gorgeous mansion was razed to make way for a commercial development. Construction of the commercial development halted due to the 1929 stock market crash, however, and the building’s foundation would serve as a symbol of the depressed economy for a number of years.
Tickets for the history crawl are $10 in advance and $15 the day of the event. They can be purchased at the Clayson House, 224 E. Palatine Road, or at the Palatine Park District, 250 E. Wood St.
For more information, call the Palatine Historical Society at (847) 991-6460.