Little White School Museum to Have Program on Electric Railroad

The Little White School Museum’s winter-spring program series opens at 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, with a fascinating program on the Joliet, Plainfield, & Aurora Electric Railroad.

The museum is located at 72 Polk Street (Jackson at Polk) in Oswego, just two blocks from Oswego’s historic downtown business district.

An interurban trolley line that connected Joliet with Aurora from 1904-1922, the JP&A was a convenient way for many residents of Oswego and rural Wheatland Township to travel to the region’s larger cities in the years before automobiles became the nation’s major mode of transportation.

Travelers boarded the train at various stops from downtown Joliet to downtown Aurora, including rural stops at Normantown and Wolf’s Crossing, to ride the JP&A interurban cars to school, work, and shopping. In addition, thousands of weekend riders were drawn to the JP&A’s Electric Park at Plainfield, a hugely popular summertime entertainment destination that boasted attractions similar to Montgomery’s Fox River Park.

Bill Molony, president of the Black Hawk Chapter of the National Railroad Historical Society, will entertain visitors with accounts of how the JP&A shuttled passengers efficiently the 20 miles between Aurora and Joliet from 1904 until the company disbanded in 1924 due to the rise of the automobile and the Lincoln Highway.
Admission donation is $5 for this program geared to visitors age 16 and older. No pre-registration is required; just show up the day of the program.

The program series continues at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 8, when Plainfield’s Michael Lambert and Oswego’s Tina Beaird team up to present “Celebrating the first 50 years of the Lincoln Highway.”

Lambert and Beaird will present an afternoon of stories about the historic roadway’s construction, history, and notable sites along the way including the nationally designed “Auto Row” in Aurora, the Lincoln Highway Shelter at Philips Park, and the rise and fall of the mom and pop gas stations and motels along the Lincoln Highway in the Oswego area will entertain visitors aged 16 and older.

Admission donation is $5. No pre-registration is required, just drop in the day of the program.

This winter-spring program series wraps up when Darien Kruss, president of the Will County Beekeepers Association, presents “An Afternoon with an Urban Beekeeper” on Saturday, April 19.

Starting at 1 p.m., Kruss will lead visitors through the lives of honeybees and introduce the audience to the fundamentals of beekeeping. Watch as Kruss demonstrates how to set up a hive, provides tips, and answers questions for those who would like to get started in beekeeping but don’t know where to begin.
Admission donation is $5. No pre-registration is required.

For more information on this year’s winter-spring program series at the Little White School Museum, call the museum at 630-554-2999, or send an email toinfo@littlewhiteschoolmuseum.org.

Provided by the Little White School Museum