'Last Call For Alcohol!' Opens At Joliet Historical Museum

JOLIET, IL - For the next nine months, the Joliet Area Historical Museum in downtown Joliet wants you to think about one thing: Beer.

Beer. Beer. Beer.

On Friday, the Route 66 historical museum opened its newest special exhibit, one that pays homage to the city of Joliet's proud but often overlooked history involving alcohol production. On Thursday night, Joliet Patch was on hand as museum staff hosted a grand opening celebration for their new special exhibit appropriately titled, "Last Call For Alcohol! The History of Joliet's Breweries."

The exhibit features a rare collection of beer artifacts owned by Joliet beer historian John Bittermann. At the event, downtown Joliet's two brand-new microbreweries, MyGrain Brewing Company and Elder Brewing, were also present serving samples of their beverages to the guests.

Mostly, the new beer exhibit focuses on Joliet's history of brewing during the 19th century until 1958 when the last of Joliet's breweries closed. It was not until last fall when Joliet rewrote its own history, with the opening of MyGrain Brewing inside the historic Union Station. Then in November, Elder Brewing celebrated its grand opening at 218 E. Cass St.

Joliet's beer-making history dates back to the 1800s.

Here are some of the remarks made by Thursday night's special guests at the museum:

Joliet City Councilwoman Jan Quillman: "When you go into visit this exhibit, talking about Capone and all the different breweries that have been here in Joliet and now that we have two new ones, MyGrain and Elder, we are coming into our own right now, with the new train station and the ballpark and courthouse and of course our museum and the Rialto is doing fabulous ... And just I'm very proud to be serving on this City Council to be representing this very wonderful city. And the museum staff and the board, they have a hard job doing what they can with what little monies that they have. So we're always looking for sponsors ..."

Jan Quillman

John Bittermann: "Without these artifacts, it would be much harder to tell the story. Fortunately, the staff has done a great job putting together panels and explanations to go along with all of my artifacts. And once again, I can't thank the museum enough for letting me be a part of this fine exhibit.

John Bittermann

Joliet Historical Museum Executive Director Greg Peerbolte: He mentioned that now in Joliet "we have two brewpubs where a year ago we had zero and I don't know if you could source this but I think we were the largest metropolitan city that did not have any brew pubs at one time. So, it's good to have that reputation back because at one point we were said to be the largest brewery town outside of Chicago and Milwaukee in the Midwest per capita. This is an appropriate exhibit ..."

The Joliet Area Historical Museum is at 204 Ottawa St. For more about its hours, admissions, special events and sponsorship opportunities, visit its website here.

Exhibits from Joliet's two new microbreweries are also featured.

Images via John Ferak, Joliet Patch Editor