A Day in Princeton -- May 19

The weather was PERFECT for our learning trip to Princeton on May 19!

Upon our arrival, we took a short walk to the Bureau County Historical Museum and spent over an hour to exploring the exhibits with three docents. The displays included an 1853 parlor, an interpretation of Princeton photographer Henry Immke’s studio, a large costume room, and a research library. Other items on display were fossils, Native American artifacts, pioneer utensils, farming equipment, Civil War and military memorabilia, Cherry Mine Disaster displays, early vehicles, and medical equipment.

We hopped aboard the bus and took a short drive to the Lovejoy Homestead, one of the most important stations on the Underground Railroad in Illinois. The property, which was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997, was once the home of Owen Lovejoy, a nationally recognized Congressman who fought for the abolition of slavery. Runaway slaves were harbored by the Lovejoy family until arrangements could be made for them to travel to the next station on their way to Canada and freedom.

After lunch at The Lightpost Restaurant, we stopped in for a short visit at Patterns of the Past, an 8,000 square-foot store that boasts a large selection of new “store stock” patterns that enables thousands of customers each month to replace their broken/missing pieces of china.

We concluded the day with an hour-long visit to Hornbaker Gardens, a family-owned and operated nursery specializing in perennial flowers.

For more information, about the sites visited, please log onto:
www.bureaucountymuseum.com, www.lovejoyhomestead.com, and www.hornbakergardens.com.