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Partly cloudy skies. Low 69F. SW winds shifting to NW at 10 to 15 mph..

Partly cloudy skies. Low 69F. SW winds shifting to NW at 10 to 15 mph.

The History Museum on the Square at dusk. 

The History Museum on the Square at dusk. 

One of Illinois’ little known architectural treasures is the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County’s History Museum on the Square at 332 Maine in downtown Quincy. Housed in a beautifully maintained Romanesque Revival structure which was completed in 1888, the building served as the Quincy Public Library until 1974. In 1977, the structure, designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Patton and Fisher, was sold to a group of Quincy citizens and became the Gardner Museum of Architecture and Design. That museum closed in 2012, and the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County accepted both the ownership and assets of the building. Today, the edifice serves as the home of the Society’s History Museum on the Square.

Among the structure’s exterior Romanesque features is the rough-faced native Quincy limestone that forms the walls of the building. The magnificent three-story entrance tower with its deep-set windows and its parapet gable roof also identifies the Museum as Romanesque. Along the south side of the original structure is an extension added in 1929 designed by noted Quincy architect Ernest Wood.

This stucco extension is indicative of the Prairie Style of architecture which heavily influenced Wood after 1905. This wing and its furnishings initially cost $5,406.70. The addition was fireproof and contained a full basement which was described as “light and spacious.” This lower area was used to store the magazines which had formerly been stored in the boiler room area. This first-floor addition originally housed the children’s room and had a separate entrance. The main floor of the original library, with impressive stone entryway at the southwest corner of 4th and Maine, housed the check-out and "receiving" desk, as well as book stacks with a capacity of 10,000 volumes.

Surrounding the Museum are lawns and flower beds with a variety of trees and shrubs. The Sculpture Garden contains large pieces of stone architectural fragments and sculpture from the Gardner Museum collection. Adjacent to the Ernest Wood addition is the John Wood Memorial Plaza, a patio area replete with benches and inscribed pavers contributed by individuals in memory of past members and family in support of the Society and its mission. On the east facade of the building visitors can also find a stone and bronze drinking fountain sponsored by the mother of Brigadier General Henry Root Hill. The fountain memorializes Hill’s service in World War I, including his tragic death in battle near Lorraine, France during the last days of the war in 1918.

Because the Museum was originally a library, visitors often mention their experiences in the building as they browsed, read, and conducted research there. They also comment on the beautiful carved butternut woodwork, transoms, and pocket doors, as well as the open-truss vaulted ceiling with exposed tongue and groove finish in the second floor reading room.

At any given time, the Museum offers a variety of permanent and changing exhibits. On the main floor are two continuing exhibits, the “Quincy: City of Refuge” and “Early Quincy: the Bluffs.” The “City of Refuge” exhibit features photos, document facsimiles, and informational panels describing Quincy’s 19th century aid to the Mormons during their exodus from Missouri after being expelled by Governor Lilburn Boggs in 1838. A short informational video produced and provided by the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation is available for viewing, recounting Quincy’s welcome and humanitarian assistance to the Mormons during the winter of 1838-1839. A small group of hand-forged metal door keys from the original Nauvoo Temple are also displayed in this room.

The “Early Quincy” exhibit contains maps, documents, objects, a local militia uniform, and historic photographs relating to the first days of the city’s history. Included in this collection are the original seal of the city, the compass carried by John Wood as he explored western Illinois, and an original map of the bounty lands.

Other areas of the main floor are devoted to changing and continuing exhibits. In the recent past these exhibits have included “The Golden Age of Quincy” and “Remembering World War I.”

A current and continuing exhibit “The Road to Freedom” provides an overview of local and regional participation in the Underground Railroad, which assisted enslaved persons to freedom. Included in this exhibit is the story of the Tolton family who escaped from slavery in northeast Missouri and a look at the life Father Augustus Tolton (the first Black priest in the U.S.) as well as information about New Philadelphia and the Quincy Mission Institute of the Rev. Dr. David Nelson.

On the second floor of the Museum the Stained Glass Gallery is housed in the large, open, original library reading room, which is now used for meetings, programs and events with seating for approximately seventy-five people. Most of the stained-glass panels displayed here are from no-longer-extant Quincy area churches and commercial buildings, as well as historic stained-glass studios, and include pieces by Tiffany and Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as by the Franz Mayer Glass Works and the Lamb Studios of New York and Berlin. Among the scenes portrayed are the “Annunciation Window,” the “St. James of Ulm Window,” and the gorgeous, multi-paneled “Christ at the Door Window.”

Adjacent to this room is the Everett Gallery, which features eleven watercolors painted by Quincyan Edward Everett in the 1850s. The works include local residential and Mississippi River scenes. Identified as a romanticized landscape painter, Everett’s more well-known works, images of the Alamo, were inspired by his service in the Mexican War of 1846.

The small northeast room on the second-floor, once housing the Historical Society’s “relic” collection, now features “Window onto the Square,” an interactive exhibit and video that invites visitors to explore the history of the nearby “John’s Square.” The touch screen video production allows visitors to select from a variety of time periods and Quincy locations and view short narrative segments recounting historic events and people from Quincy’s past as they look out the museum’s second story panoramic windows onto a contemporary Washington Square Park.

Dittmer, Arlis. “Ernest M. Wood and the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County,” Quincy

HSQAC.org/History Museum on the Square

Nelson, Iris. “ ‘Cozy Temple of Knowledge’ Located in the Center of Quincy.” Quincy Herald-Whig, September 9, 2012.

Beth Young is a retired Quincy educator. After thirty three years in the Quincy Public Schools, she held part time instructional positions at both JWCC and QU.  She holds degrees from Quincy College and NIU, and did additional graduate work at Oxford University.

Lynn M. Snyder is a native of Adams County, a semi-retired archaeologist and museum researcher, and a former librarian. She is a board member and Museum Coordinator for the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County.

The Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County is preserving the Governor John Wood Mansion, the History Museum on the Square, the 1835 Log Cabin, the Livery, the Lincoln Gallery displays, and a collection of artifacts and documents that tell the story of who we are. This award-winning column is written by members of the Society. For more information visit hsqac.org or email info@hsqac.org.

This is the first in a series of articles about historic Quincy buildings and locations open for visitors. Parts of this article previously appeared in the May-June 2022 issue of Illinois Heritage magazine and is used with permission.

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