The Hoosier Grove Museum will reopen on March 5, 2016.
Hoosier Grove Park includes a schoolhouse museum, a barn and recreational areas on about 20 acres.
For local history buffs, the Hoosier Grove Schoolhouse Museum is open from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm on Wednesdays, 9:00 am to 11:30 am on Saturdays. Costumed volunteers such as Curtis and her daughter, Cindy, who both live in Streamwood, are on hand to answer visitors' questions.
The one-room school was built in 1904 by a Bartlett carpenter who was hired by immigrant German farmers. The school was originally located at Old Church and Barrington Roads on one acre of land donated by William Schunemann.
It served as School District 43 1/2 until 1954, when it and two other local one-room schools were consolidated into Hanover Countryside School. At the time the school was closed, it still didn't have indoor plumbing. The building was moved to its present location in 1991.
Today, the school has been turned into an early 1900s schoolhouse, complete with a coal-burning stove in the back, 24 old-time desks, pictures of George and Martha Washington on the wall, old class photos, a 48-star flag, games such as jacks and marbles, a Hanover Township Champion Spelling Bee banner, wooden benches for reading and English class and antique textbooks, including a full set of "McGuffey Readers."
Another highlight of Hoosier Grove Park is the 106-year-old red barn, which has been overhauled and turned into a banquet facility and meeting rooms. Inside the barn, the "Legacy of the Land" exhibit details the history of agriculture in the Streamwood area, which was settled in 1835. The exhibit includes old photos, marriage licenses, farming tools, local maps and Native American arrowheads.
As James Hanks, one of Hoosier Grove's first settlers, wrote in a letter to his parents: "For beauty, convenience and goodness, take the three together, and I think my choice surpasses any lands I ever saw."
There's also information on the Struckmeier, Voss and Landmeier families who once owned and farmed the site. The Landmeiers sold the property to the Streamwood Park District in 1988.
