One of Joliet’s newest attractions offers a chance to delve into the city’s rail travel history.
The Joliet Railroad Museum officially opened to the public on May 10th inside the Joliet Gateway Center station.
“Joliet is truly a transportation hub,” said Jane Bernhardt, who has served as one of Joliet’s three city planners since June 2017.
“The railroad museum is located in a facility that the city decided to preserve and not demolish.”
The Joliet Area Historical Museum, which operates the attraction, describes the Joliet Railroad Museum as an interlocking signal tower built around 1913, known locally as the Union Depot Tower.
“It’s important to preserve a part of Joliet’s history and highlight the importance of Joliet’s railroad industry, past and present,” said Bernhardt, who has served as a member of the all-volunteer Joliet Area History Museum board of directors since November 2020.
Bernhardt began working on establishing the Joliet Railroad Museum at the request of his former boss, Kendall Jackson, who retired from his job as community development director for the city of Joliet in December 2020.
“One of the reasons I took the job in Joliet was because they were looking for a city planner who would also serve on the staff of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission,” said Bernhardt, who has master’s degrees in regional planning and history.
During its official grand opening ceremony in June 2018, the Joliet Gateway Center featured a special exhibit on the Union Depot Tower that Bernhardt curated, and he used that information to apply for a grant for a permanent Joliet Railroad Museum.
The City of Joliet was awarded $19,600 in fiscal year 2019 through the Qualified Local Government Grant Program through the State Historic Preservation Office, plus $8,400 for staff labor, after which an exhibit designer was hired and the first stage of the exhibit was fabricated and installed.
“We were presented with another grant opportunity that allowed us to take what is currently open to the public to the next level. The second grant allowed us to make physical improvements to the facility and add another wall with information about the railroad companies that came through Joliet,” Bernhardt said.
The Route 66 Grant Program, administered by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, awarded Heritage Corridor Destinations $1.6 million in grant funding, including about $68,000 to the city’s Joliet Railroad Museum.
The two-story attraction includes information about the track realignment and elevation projects from 1910 to 1912, including the construction of Joliet Union Station. Exhibits include walls filled with relays and interlocking devices.
“If you go up there, you get a great view of the area, including Diamond. Freight and passenger rail traffic still goes through that intersection,” said Bernhardt, a Joliet native.
“We’re really excited about the museum as a platform to tackle a variety of different themes: labor history, labour history. We can study ethnic history, we can study social history. There’s a lot we can do and there’s still space on the walls for temporary exhibits and social displays.”
Jesse Vazio is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Joliet Railroad Museum
Hours: Friday to Sunday 10am to 2:30pm
Location: Inside Joliet Gateway Center, 90 E. Jefferson St., Joliet.
Admission: $5 admission, free for Joliet Area History Museum members
Information: 815-723-5201; jolietmuseum.org/joliet-railroad-museum.html
