UNION, Ill. — Dedication of the Chicago & North Western Historical Society’s Archives Research Center at the Illinois Railway Museum highlighted the society’s 50th anniversary celebration during its three-day 2024 convention at Union and Crystal Lake, Ill.
The research center joins the replica 1950s street scene on the museum’s Main Street, and replaces the society’s storage building in Berwyn, Ill.
Margery Piersen, the wife of Joe Piersen, rang a bronze bell Saturday morning as part of the dedication. Piersen was archives chairman for the historical society and staunch supporter of building a new structure to house the society’s extensive collection of C&NW and other associated railroads. Piersen passed away at age 74 in July 2014.
“I am very, very pleased and proud,” Margery Piersen said. “It is very important to preserve history, along with being part of this dedication. Joe not only helped members do research, but he also helped people that were restoring a depot or former C&NW building with research and drawings.”
The Piersen legacy will live on with the new state-of-the-art archives building, with several rooms filled with maps, blueprints, photographs and displays of uniforms worn by C&NW conductors and trainmen.
Newly elected Society president James Lewnard said, “It’s wonderful. We’ve had some difficulties along the way, but we worked through them.’’
— Updated at 1:25 p.m. CT to correct date of death for Joe Piersen; updated at 1:40 p.m. with Margery Pierson photo
Great idea. Be nice to get more fallen flags historical materials into another building on the IRM campus.
Probably won’t find much ICRR materials. When the old HQ was shutting down, they banned employees from removing anything, just to watch private maintenance people toss loads of maps, filing cabinets of materials, financial records, you name it, into the dumpster to be incinerated. It got so bad employees started an “underground railroad” to smuggle out historical artifacts. Tons of ICRR paraphernalia is probably still sitting in former employees basements throughout Chicago.
He died in 2014.
That has to be some age gap if her husband died 40 years ago at the age of 74.