Look just ahead for a stately two-story yellow brick house with tall, narrow windows and a little balcony on the roof-the Jean Butz James Museum sits right on the corner, easy to spot with its old-fashioned charm.
Picture it: it’s 1871, and Highland Park is barely a toddler of a town. The city is so new that folks are betting big on the future-so big, in fact, that this house was built before anyone even knew who would live here! The Highland Park Building Company must have thought, “If we build it, the Chicagoans will come.” So they crafted this Italianate house with bracketed eaves and, my favorite part, a widow’s walk on top, perfect for dramatic sighing into the wind-or spying on your neighbors, if we’re honest. For almost a century, this house watched Highland Park grow, until, in 1969, the Highland Park Historical Society swooped in and saved it. Three years later, it opened as a museum, letting visitors poke around and learn surprises from local history. It even made it to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982! The museum closed in 2015, but the building still stands-a proud guardian of the town’s early days. Imagine standing here with hopeful new residents bustling by, dreaming of their own future stories.
