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The St. Charles Heritage Center is proud to display a visual history of St. Charles in our museum located at the old McCornack Building located at 215 E. Main Street. We invite you to come on in and explore the stories and artifacts we've gathered with the help and generosity of so many people in St. Charles. (Click on the thumbnails for a better view!)

Our temporary exhibit space is currently showing "Greetings from
St. Charles" highlighting recreation in St. Charles and along the Fox River.

Our museum features a timeline of St. Charles historical events beginning in 1833 with the founding of our town and also features a Sheldon Peck painting of Stevens Sanborn Jones painted in 1841.

We also have a wide variety of items from the Civil War including an ammunition box and knapsack, as well as photos and the history of the 8th Illinois Cavalry which was recruited and trained here in St. Charles by General John Farnsworth.

St. Charles experienced a surge in population and growth in the early part of the 1900's with the opening of the Cable Piano Factory and the Moline Malleable Co. This brought many immigrants to St. Charles from Belgium and Lithuania. We have items that many of these people brought with them and used here in St. Charles.

The St. Charles Heritage Center has permanent displays about medicine and business in St. Charles.

A temporary display currently at the museum features three residents from St. Charles who survived the sinking of Titanic. The display features photos and news articles about the survivors as well as a complete listing of all passengers that were aboard the ill fated ship.

Our history museum is housed in a renovated 1928 gas station and shown are actual items from the when the station operated, along with other memorabilia of the time.

The history of the police and fire departments of St. Charles is also featured in a permanent display at our history museum.

Maps of the St. Charles Township area are a featured part of the exhibits including this hand drawn map of St. Charles Township done in 1886.

The St. Charles area was inhabited by Native Americans for many centuries including the Fox, Sac and Pottawatomi tribes. We have several artifacts that have been found in the area and believed to have been used by the various tribes.

Recreation in St. Charles came in several forms throughout the years including Pigeon Racing and playing Rolle Bolle. Both are traditions brought to the area by early Belgium and Lithuanian settlers.

Education in St. Charles has been an important part of the history of the town including the fact that St. Charles had the first federally funded public school in the State of Illinois after legislation was passed by the federal government in 1854.

Industry was an important part of St. Charles History which included the Cable Piano Factory, which made upright and player pianos - one of which is shown here.

The change of the last century brought enormous changes to our country and also affected St. Charles tremendously. Many young men from St. Charles went off to fight in World War I, and later with the opening of the Arcada Theatre downtown, many young women could see fashion on the big screen directly from Hollywood and thus began the age of the flapper.

Many young men and women from St. Charles also fought in World War II. Over 1,000 people from St. Charles left to perform some sort of service for their country during the war years, this represented roughly one quarter of the population of St. Charles at the time.

One of the more interesting stories of St. Charles involves the Gates/Baker/Norris families shown here. Stop in to the St. Charles History Museum to get more information on how how these families helped to build St. Charles.