A former museum housing a helicopter and thousands of photographs, personal letters, documents and historic objects related to the long-shuttered Naval Air Station Glenview will be temporarily leased by the village of Glenview amid efforts to establish a new, permanent home for the collection.
The Glenview Village Board on Jan. 20 approved a six-month, $10,050 lease agreement for the former Glenview Naval Air Station Museum property at 2040 Lehigh Ave., previously operated by the Glenview Hangar One Foundation.
The Glenview History Center, which receives financial and other support from the village and the Glenview Public Library through a 2023 partnership agreement, will reimburse the village for the cost of the lease and utilities, officials said.
A sublease approved by the Village Board will allow representatives from the nonprofit Glenview History Center to use the former museum building to catalog, sort and pack the museum’s collection. The Hangar One Foundation transferred ownership of the Naval Air Station Glenview items to the history center last year after experiencing financial challenges.
Kimberly Schlarman, a member of the Glenview History Center Board of Directors and the genealogy and local history supervisor at the Glenview Public Library, said the history center officially took over the collection on Dec. 1.
“Since then, we’ve been going through the collection, figuring out where everything is and coordinating with the village on what to do with the larger items, like the helicopter and jet engines,” Schlarman said.
A former Coast Guard helicopter is stored just outside the museum.
Naval Air Station Glenview operated in the village from 1937 to 1995. Today, it is the site of the Glen, home to more than 1,100 acres of residential, commercial and recreational properties, including a shopping center, movie theater and nature area.
When the air station was decommissioned, the Hangar One Foundation was formed to preserve the former control tower, and it look over stewardship of the station’s artifacts.
The foundation’s museum opened in 2004 and was originally located in the base of the control tower.
The Glenview History Center was founded in 1965 to promote and preserve Glenview history. Its Farmhouse Museum, located at 1121 Waukegan Road, displays exhibits related to the history of Glenview, and a collection of artifacts, books and other materials can also be found in the neighboring Hibbard Library.
Some naval station items uncovered by the Glenview History Museum have already gone on public display. A small exhibit at the Glenview Library features artifacts that exemplify daily life at the former naval station in the 1940s through the 1960s.
It includes meal trays, menus, a sample of the type of food served, and information about a bowling alley and wedding chapel that were on site, Schlarman said.
Much of the collection will be stored until a new museum location can be found, she added.
“We’re waiting on the village to help us find a permanent museum space,” Schlarman said. “We do plan on occasionally having exhibits that feature items from the collection, but some of the bigger items we won’t have access to for a while.”
A Glenview village memo presented to elected officials ahead of Jan. 20 lease vote noted that a “more permanent museum space situation will be considered in the future.”
The aim is to make the artifacts accessible to the public for research and viewing.
“[The naval station] is such a huge part of Glenview’s history and Glenview’s identity in the mid to late 20th century,” Schlarman said.
