The Joliet Area Historical Museum is a historical museum located in

Joliet, Illinois Joliet ( ) is a city in Will County, Illinois, Will and Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the cit ...

. The museum documents the history of Joliet and surrounding

Will County Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

Description and history

The museum adaptively reuses an urban space formerly occupied by the Ottawa Street Methodist Church, which was designed by Joliet architect G. Julian Barnes and built in 1909. Located on one of the alternate paths of old historic

U.S. Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...

, the museum's modern ground-floor addition features the Route 66 Welcome Center, which presents a permanent exhibit called the Route 66 Experience. This newer part of the museum also connects to the historic Joliet Chamber of Commerce Clubhouse next door (now known as the Renaissance Center of the City Center campus of

Joliet Junior College Joliet Junior College (JJC) is a public community college in Joliet, Illinois. Founded in 1901, it was the first public community college founded in the United States. In Spring 2014, the college enrolled 16,375 students. Every year, 48,000 stu ...

) and to the JJC Renaissance Center's main dining room, which is staffed by the college's hospitality and culinary school students and open to the public. During the late 20th century, formerly rural Will County townships grew rapidly, while properties in central city Joliet were threatened. In 2002, the former church's urban space was reconfigured as a historic museum. A separate wing is home to an exhibit about the Joliet-raised NASA engineer and JJC graduate John C. Houbolt, honored as the chief conceptualizer of the

lunar orbit rendezvous Lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) is a process for landing humans on the Moon and returning them to Earth. It was utilized for the Apollo program missions in the 1960s and 1970s. In a LOR mission, a main spacecraft and a smaller lunar lander travel to ...

segment of the U.S. Apollo program and the use of a

lunar module The Apollo Lunar Module (LM ), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed ...

to shuttle astronauts to and from the surface of the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

. The museum is located at 204 N. Ottawa Street in central Joliet. An admission fee is charged. , the museum was seeking to establish guided tours of the landmark former Collins Street Prison for

Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...

travelers and other interested tourists. As of 2018, the museum began providing tours of the Collins Street Prison.

References

{{Authority control History of Joliet, Illinois Museums in Will County, Illinois Buildings and structures in Joliet, Illinois History museums in Illinois Museums established in 1977 1977 establishments in Illinois