Skokie Heritage Museum

10/16/2026

📣 REGISTER NOW: NEW YOGA CLASSES STARTING SOON

The Integrated Spine Yoga Workshop
📆 Friday, Oct. 23 & 30 | 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
ℹ This two-part intensive yoga workshop is designed to build body freedom through structural balance by decompressing the spine. Each day addresses one of the spine's two primary support systems: the hips and the shoulders. The first day focuses on building stability and mobility in the hip joints to create a resilient foundation and eliminate lower back strain. The second day focuses on opening the upper body and heart to release chronic tension by creating muscular support and alignment in the shoulders and neck. The workshop will be offered again in December.
🎟 $57 (resident) / $71 (non-resident) | Register online at: https://bit.ly/4i2n3r3

Chair Yoga
📆 Wednesdays, Oct. 28-Dec. 16 (no class Nov. 25) | 10-11 a.m.
ℹ Chair yoga is a comprehensive practice that adapts traditional Hatha yoga postures for the chair, making the profound benefits of yoga accessible to everyone, regardless of age, mobility, or fitness level. In this class, the chair acts as both a support for stability and a lever to increase mobility safely, allowing students to deepen alignment, increase range of motion, and foster a calm, centered nervous system. Drop-ins are available ($17/$21) once minimum enrollment is met.
🎟 $100 (resident) / $125 (non-resident) | Register online at: https://bit.ly/4zxjWOU

10/14/2026

🪦 It's ! Meet Elsie Stielow coming to you live from 1903 at this year's Haunted Heritage Cemetery Walk: BOOm & Bust. She has lots to tell you about everything up-and-coming in Niles Center (now Skokie), her family's role in the floral greenhouse industry, and all the fun she and her friends have in the Bachelor Maidens Club (pictured here; Elsie is third from right).

🎟 Walk takes place on Halloween, Saturday, Oct. 31 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at St. Peter's UCC and St Paul Lutheran Church Cemeteries (8530 Harms Rd.)! More info and tickets here: https://www.skokieparks.org/events/haunted-heritage-cemetery-walk-boom--bust/

📸 Pictured here: 1) A large upright tombstone reading "Stielow" with four smaller markers below for Walter, Elsie, Louise, and Mae, four of the Stielow siblings buried there. 2) A black-and-white photo c. 1900 of the Niles Center Bachelor Maidens Club wearing long coats and large fun hats. From left to right: Alma Klehm, Louise Stielow, Emma Kruse Wolters, Lucille Harrer Little, Ann Schmitt, Florence Klehm Freund, Elsie Stielow, Mae Stielow, and Elizabeth Stielow.

10/07/2026

🪦 On this , meet George H. Klehm, former mayor and all-around civic leader. You might recognize his last name from his two incredible sisters, Alma and Dr. Amelia Louise, who have been featured in previous Haunted Heritage walks, but he was pretty cool in his own right too. When E. Palma Beaudette wrote what was probably the first official history of Skokie in 1916, she started with a story of him standing by the side of the road with a shovel!

🪏 Dig into his story and find out why at this year's Haunted Heritage Cemetery Walk: BOOm & Bust on Halloween, Saturday, Oct. 31 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at St. Peter's UCC and St Paul Lutheran Church Cemeteries (8530 Harms Rd.)! More info and tickets here: https://www.skokieparks.org/events/haunted-heritage-cemetery-walk-boom--bust/

📸 Pictured here: 1) His low-profile, rectangular, grey tombstone that reads "George H. Klehm, Feb. 3, 1873 - May 15, 1932." and 2) A black-and-white photo of a 1915 Village of Skokie board meeting in the second floor of the firehouse, today's Skokie Heritage Museum. A group of men in suits are seated around a large wooden desk, from left to right: Trustee Christ Blameuser, Trustee Robert Hoffman, Trustee Albert Lies, Trustee Samuel Meyer, Mayor George H. Klehm, Trustee John W. Brown, Trustee Richard Kruse, and Village Clerk Charles Langfeld. There is an unidentified man standing behind Klehm and Brown who was probably a legal or engineering consultant.

10/02/2026

09/29/2026

👻 Welcome back to our favorite time of the year - spooky season! We ain't afraid of no ghosts though - and kicking off this year's first , we're featuring August Kutz, who might actually haunt The Skokie Theater today...

🚽 : August built the first plumbing store in town around 1924 (today's Don Julio Café), right across the street from the theater (pictured with its original façade in the window reflections on the left side of the photo below). His daughter Helen later recalled that August did theater's plumbing and heating work and never missed a show from 1915-1935, for which the theater honored him with a special seat in the 1942 remodel. August passed in 1945, and the seats have long since been replaced. Today, rumors of occasionally haunted theater plumbing have us wondering if August is still catching shows!

🪦 Meet August and hear about how his business survived the Great Depression by supporting the community at this year's Haunted Heritage Cemetery Walk: BOOm & Bust. Join us at the St. Peter's UCC and St Paul Lutheran Church cemeteries (8530 Harms Rd.) on Halloween, Saturday, Oct. 31 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.!

📸 Pictured here: 1) the tombstone for August Kutz and his wife Bertha. 2) a c. 1920s black-and-white photo of August Kutz's Heating and Plumbing store, a brick building with two large window displays that include a new toilet and plumbing fixtures. The Niles Center Theatre is in the window reflection on the left. In front of the store is a man with a young child, probably August Kutz with one of his grandchildren.

🎟️ More details and tickets to this year's Haunted Heritage walk here: https://www.skokieparks.org/events/haunted-heritage-cemetery-walk-boom--bust/. Children 7 and younger free with paid adult. Drop-ins welcome.

09/17/2026

LAST CHANCE! HISTORY OF OLD ORCHARD WALKING TOUR
What was there before Old Orchard Mall? Legend says the land was once an apple orchard, but photographs show northern Skokie mostly undeveloped until after World War II. Between 1907 and 1933, though, Old Orchard Road - then Harrison Street - played host to the Hinky Dink train line. This 1926 photo shows the Hinky Dink tracks along Harrison Street with farmland on both sides. The "Dinky" line once took passengers from Evanston to Glenview Golf Club, passing Memorial Park Cemetery, a speakeasy called the Blind Pig, and the future site of Old Orchard Mall.

Hear the real story of Old Orchard's name at our FINAL walking tour celebrating the mall's 70th anniversary!

🔗 Register here: https://bit.ly/4hurCv7
📌 Drop-ins are welcome!

🗓 Monday, October 5 at 5–7 p.m.
📍 Westfield Old Orchard, Macy's West Entrance

08/29/2026

🤩 Check out our newest exhibit, "Things Happened Here: A History of Civic Engagement in Skokie"! We're very lucky to have some brand new artifacts on display and more on loan from the Village of Skokie too. We're open today until 5 p.m. and again tomorrow, Sunday, Aug. 30 from 1-5 p.m. Get a special behind-the-scenes look with the exhibit curators in tonight's gallery talk 5-6 p.m. or tomorrow's museum tour 12-1 p.m. for $10 per person!

We'll reopen to the public Sunday, Sept. 13 with our regular hours of Sundays, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. and Mondays & Thursdays, 12-5 p.m. - and we're always free to visit and available by appointment. Hope to see you soon!

08/26/2026

📩 READ ALL ABOUT IT: Check out our fall newsletter with all the latest programming and news! From Skokie's Backlot Bash this weekend to our fan-favorite Haunted Heritage Cemetery Walk this Halloween and new yoga classes, there's lots to choose from. Plus read our special spotlights featuring our recent log cabin restoration work and commemorating the start of the 50th anniversary of the attempted N**i demonstrations here in Skokie. Don't forget to subscribe to get future editions delivered straight to your inbox:

Email from Skokie Park District New exhibit, log cabin restoration, and more! Hours (starting September 13): Sundays 9 a.m.–2 p.m., Mondays & Thursdays 12–5 p.m. Always open by appointment. Phone: (84