The Joliet Area Historical Museum in Joliet, Illinois, plans to make a re-creation of a 1929 Slovenian corner grocery store that operated in town until the 1990s.
According to The Herald-News, the Planinsek Meat and Grocery Store has sat unoccupied for at least 20 years at the southeast corner of Elizabeth and Russell streets (map here) in Joliet. It sits two blocks west of Illinois 53 (aka Route 66) on Joliet’s north side.
The museum store will reflect a past era in Joliet, Greg Peerbolte, director of the Joliet Area Historical Museum, told the City Council at a workshop meeting on Monday.
The council on Tuesday approved a special use permit to allow the conversion of the building into a public museum.
Its location along historic Route 66 and near the Haunted Trails amusement park is expected to help draw attention to the museum when it opens. […]
The museum store would include programs about “the immigrant experience, with an emphasis on Slovenian culture, as well as the overall neighborhood experience in Joliet,” according to a city memo on the project.
Kenneth and Irene Odorizzi of Virginia, who own the building, proposed it as a living museum after learning about the city’s plans to restore Joliet Correctional Center as a tourism site.
(Excerpted image from Google Street View of Planinsek Meat and Grocery Store in Joliet, Illinois)
A cool looking little neighborhood store! Glad to see preserved by it’s owners, and now put back into use.