A Look Back at an Incredible 2025 at the West Chicago City Museum!
2025 was a monumental year for the West Chicago City Museum, marked by incredible growth in both our public engagement and our digital community. We loved connecting with you, whether you visited us in person, attended an off-site event, or engaged with us online!
By the Numbers: A Year of Growth
Our doors were open to the public for 803 hours.
We welcomed 3,957 museum guests throughout the year.
Our external programs saw an incredible 1,250 attendees.
Online, we experienced a massive 62% year-over-year increase in website visits, bringing our total to over 6,200 for the year.
We also connected with 1,444 Facebook followers and 660 Instagram followers.
Community Events & New Exhibits Our physical attendance thrived during our seasonal events. The October Trick or Treat and Mural Unveiling was a massive success, drawing 1,117 visitors, while Frosty Fest welcomed another 504 guests.
We were thrilled to debut several new exhibits, including the "Burlington Route 175th Anniversary" railroad exhibit in February and our "Rooted in Place" exhibit that opened during May's Blooming Fest. We also successfully launched our "Second Saturdays" series in March, hosting ten monthly craft and history events that engaged over 120 participants by year's end.
Expanding Our Educational Reach In collaboration with the West Chicago Public Library, we expanded our impact far beyond the museum walls. Our featured library displays—ranging from the "1920s in West Chicago" to Hispanic Heritage Month and West Chicago Veterans—were viewed by an estimated 5,000 people.
Our museum collections continue to grow as well! We now have 6,243 artifacts entered into our digital database, with 1,666 available for the public to explore online. Thanks to our community's generosity, we received 345 item donations from local families and organizations this year, and our team successfully processed 108 research requests.
Looking Ahead to 2026 & Beyond As we look to the future, we are hard at work planning programming for the U.S. 250th Anniversary in 2026 and developing three new local history programs for schools. We also have an ambitious goal to add 1,500 new items to our online database next year to increase public accessibility.
With upcoming downtown construction and renovations at the Turner Town Hall building, we are also actively planning more community engagement and off-site exhibits to ensure our rich history remains accessible to everyone.
Thank you to everyone who made 2025 such a memorable and impactful year for the West Chicago City Museum!
