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The Commons - A Storyteller's Tour of Bishop Hill

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For more than 100 years this was the site of the village Blacksmith shop. Descendants of that family not only live in Bishop Hill today, they are working artists within the cooperative that now occupies the space. For more than 35 years it was The Village Smithy Quilt Shop, built on the site of this earlier Black smith’s shop. Recently it has been converted to an art gallery and concert venue. More than a dozen local artists produce art in a wide range of media and styles including quilts and felting, watercolor and oil painting, mixed media and book making. They offer classes for kids and workshops for adults. There is a concert almost every week with some of the world’s best touring musicians from Europe, Australia, South America, and the best of the USA. The Bishop Hill Creative Commons is an artists’ cooperative that creates every day art for every one. The building you see today was built in 1983, not 1893, and though it is a very modern Butler Steel building frame, it is clad in barn wood with a pine plank floor to fit into Bishop Hill’s historic ambience. Nelson Farm Service won a national award for the design and execution of this building and the photo was featured on the Butler Steel Building catalogue the next year.


The Bishop Hill Creative Commons

In 1846, a band of religious dissidents fled Sweden to find a new land where they would be free to follow the teachings of their leader, Eric Janson. In August of 1846, Janson and Olaf Olson bought 40 acres of western Illinois land in Henry County for their religious communal colony. They later bought additional property; rich fertile farmland and woods that would eventually total 14,000 acres. The town site was selected and named after Janson's birthplace, Biskopskulla. The first group of immigrants arrived in early September of 1846. They soon built two log cabins, four tents and some dugouts. Later more cabins and dugouts were built as the rest of the colonists arrived. Since the main reason for immigration was religion, a tent structure in the form of a cross was built to allow 800 people to attend church services. A permanent church was built in 1848. By 1857 most of the major buildings had been erected near or around the Colony park. The colonists lived and worked together in a communal setting. Their hard work began to pay off as Bishop Hill entered a period of prosperity that included the manufacturing of wagons, brooms, and cloth. But life in Bishop Hill was about to change. The death of Eric Janson and inept management of the colony by the trustees that succeeded him led to the dissolution of the colony and the division of its property to the colonists in 1861. Bishop Hill entered a quiet period that would last nearly a century.  At the turn of the century several of the buildings were falling into disrepair. The Bishop Hill Heritage Association, the Old Settlers' Association, the State of Illinois, and private individuals stepped up to save the remaining buildings.  Bishop Hill was named a State Historic Site Landmark in 1970. The buildings located in the Bishop Hill Historic District were added to the National Register of Historic Places and listed in 1984 as a National Historic Landmark. Your tour will showcase many of these buildings.

Welcome to Bishop Hill!  Bishop Hill was founded in 1846 by Eric Janson, who led a group of Swedish immigrants to America looking for religious freedom and economic opportunity.  Together they created a religious communal colony. Your walking tour begins at the at the south end of town and includes many of the original buildings that were built in the early days of the Colony.  Enjoy your day as you learn about the early history of this Utopia on the Prairie.

In 1896, at the first Old Settlers' Day event, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the community, Olaf Krans put together a special exhibit of paintings he had made of his childhood memories of the colony era. He was 10 years old when he arrived in Bishop Hill and had vivid memories of his youth. He made a living as a house painter, well known for his faux finishes, making wood look like marble. He also created a series of portraits of former colonists. For many years these paintings were stored within the Colony Church. For many decades, residents of Bishop Hill had advocated for a museum dedicated to the paintings and Olof Krans. After a proposal to host a Chicago World's Fair fell apart, in 1985, funding set aside by the State of Illinois for the fair was reallocated for other projects. This resulted in construction of the Bishop Hill Museum in 1987-1988. The building incorporates brickwork and Greek Revival design elements from original Colony buildings. Open to the public, it hosts 106 of the 174 original pieces of artwork done by Olof Krans. Historic displays, a ten minute orientation video and public restrooms are also available.

As tracts of land, historic buildings, art and artifacts were being bequeathed to the Illinois State Historic Preservation Agency the need for a dedicated museum arose. Built in 1988, this museum uses a similar brick and architecture to blend in with the many brick buildings built by the colony. The Museum houses the largest collection of Olaf Krans paintings, many colony era artifacts and the archives. The Museum grounds include a restored prairie simulating the landscape the Colonists encountered upon arrival in Bishop Hill. 

The Bishop Hill State Museum

These are both “T” plan Greek Revival buildings built after the colony dissolved, Swanson's in 1862 and Jacobson’s in 1866. Swanson and Jacobson were both founding members of the colony, trustees of the colony after the murder of Erik Jansson, and both were partners in the Colony Store. Not exactly keeping up with the Joneses, the Jacobson House on the east side of the street is a slightly grander version of the Swanson House on the west side. It was originally designed to be a mirrored image of the other. The Jacobson Family and their descendants lived in this house from 1863 until 1992. 


The Swanson and Jacobson Houses

The Vasa National Archives houses the records for the Vasa Order of America, the oldest extant Swedish-American fraternal organization. The Vasa Order takes its name from the first modern king of Sweden, Gustav Vasa, and has lodges across the US, Canada and Sweden. The Vasa National Archives can also help you further your research into your Swedish genealogy or research with their non-lending library. The archive also features two rotating exhibits every year. Visitors are welcome to stop by any time.

VASA National Archives

The Bishop Hill Heritage Association archives hold some of the original account books and we can see that they sold thousands of brooms, miles of linen and miles of hooked rugs. Besides being a store, the first floor was also used as a post office for more than 80 years and the second floor housed offices and an apartment. After the Colony broke up in 1861, the store continued to operate for almost another 100 years. However, due to years of neglect the southwest corner collapsed in April of 1969. It was after this event that the building was purchased by the newly formed Bishop Hill Heritage Association. After several years of an extensive restoration project, the Colony Store was reopened on May 25, 1975. Counters, shelving and other display fixtures from the original store were retained. Swan Swanson, a colony trustee who lived upstairs during the Colony era, took over the store after the colony dissolved. Today, the Colony Store offers a wide array of Swedish imports, locally roasted coffees and chocolates, souvenirs, seasonal home décor, though most young folks refer to it: the candy shop.


Bishop Hill Colony Store

The Steeple Building was built in 1854. It was a major hub of community life with classrooms, apartments, and offices. When the utopian community dissolved individuals and families were given shares. When the current owner, The Bishop Hill Heritage Association acquired the building they had to buy it from several different families who owned rooms within the building. It has gone through a series of renovations, recently receiving new stucco, windows, and a renewed balcony and porch, all with the aim of restoring it to its original look. On the first floor is a meeting room for public programs, a permanent exhibit on the immigrant experience and a changing exhibit that features a wide array of materials relevant to the history of our Utopia on the Prairie. There are also administrative offices and a welcome desk. The second floor houses exhibits on textiles, furniture, and daily life in the community. The third floor is the archive. This unique clock tower with four faces was built by enlarging the parts of clock brought from Sweden. That clock is still on display on the first floor. (Open to the Public)

It was originally intended to be a hotel, but it was instead used as the first school and administrative building for the colony. It also had living quarters for some of the early colonists, and was later used as a bank, telephone operators switch board, doctor's office and apartments. Today it is one of the region's premiere museums with exhibits on the immigrant’s journey, daily life in this utopian colony, and the artifacts manufactured here.


The Steeple Building

As a cornerstone in the colony era industry this building was the carpenters and paint shop. The Colony made most of their own furniture and they manufactured wagons and buggies for sale. You can see some of the Bible tables, chairs and beds in the Steeple Building and Colony Church Museums. Built in 1851, it was only recently restored in 2019 by the Bishop Hill Heritage Association. They removed the stucco, added new brick and replaced the deteriorating windows and sills. Today it houses the United States Post Office. For more than 150 years the Postmaster was a direct descendent of the original colonists! There is an art gallery, Garden Thyme, which sells local crafts, herbs, produce, and garden inspired fine art. There is also an apartment on the second floor.


Carpenter and Paint Shop - US Post Office and Garden Thyme Shop

The gazebo was first built in the late 1800’s, reconstructed in 1916, again in 1976 just in time for the arrival of his majesty King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden. And then it was rebuilt once again, most recently in 2020. This band stand is still used today for Mid-Sommer celebrations, an annual Chautauqua, and many other musical programs. Music has always been an important element of life in Bishop Hill. On the east end of the park there are monuments to the Bishop Hill settlers erected in September, 1896, and a monument to Civil War soldiers erected in May 1899. The Swedes came to America in search of the freedoms offered here, freedom of religion and freedom of the press in particularly, knowing those freedoms were limited in their homeland. When the Civil War erupted, the Swedish boys of Bishop Hill enlisted in droves to defend those freedoms, forming their own company, Company D, which fought in every major battle in the Western Theater from Shiloh to Atlanta to Sherman's March to the Sea. One of their commanders, General “Black Jack” Logan loved his Swedish Brigade and often used them as the blade of his sword to cut through enemy lines.  Knowing that many of these trees were planted over the course of 170 years and there are more than two dozen species of trees in this small park, feel encouraged to wander through the park and explore this diversity, walnut and butternut, poplar and cottonwood, sycamore and spruce, several species of oak and maple.

On the west side of the street is the town square originally planned and planted by the Colonists in 1853. Because of its age it has some of the oldest trees in the state, more than 25 species. There is a glorious gazebo still used for live music and lectures, a Civil War monument, and a monument to the original colonists, as well as playground equipment and picnic tables.


The Town Square

On the first floor of this building was a rather modern forge with room for six Blacksmiths, metal lathes, a trip hammer and other machining tools operated by a steam-engine powered line shaft. More than nails and horse shoes, this shop made all manner of metal tools, hinges, chandeliers, and the metal components of carriages, wagons and sleighs. Knowing that next door was the carpenters shop and on the second floor of this building was Wagon Hall, where the pieces came together to make the wagons.  Shakers in Kentucky purchased these wagons and the Krans Livery Stable out back displays similar models. Today the building houses the Prairie Arts Center where you can often find artists and craftspeople weaving and hooking rugs, or making brooms. 


Blacksmith Shop - Prairie Arts Center

Though most colonists lived in communal settings, like Big Brick or the ground floor of the Colony Church, there were only a few private homes. Because they worked, ate and worshipped in common these original houses had no kitchen or dining room. When the colony dissolved Eric Krans received this house and a portion of the Blacksmith shop as his share. Eric was the brother of the famous painter Olof Krans and father of the livery man Albert Krans. The house was later sold to Lars Soderquist and has been owned by just three families since it was built. The addition was added in the 1870’s. (Private Residence)


Eric Krans Home

This post colony structure was built in 1908 and restored in the recent past by the Bishop Hill Heritage Association; they also manage the museum. Peter Albert Krans was the son of Eric Krans and nephew of the painter Olof Krans, who painted the first sign above the door. Knowing a larger stable that would house more than 200 horses was within view just south of here, this building was believed to house the tack, saddles and reigns for the horses. Today it is a small museum of period saddles, tack, reigns, carriages and a sleigh. The items on display are representative of the era, though many are not original to the colony.


Albert Krans Livery Stable

Built with more of the beautiful Bishop Hill brick, this building was both the home and work place of the dairy maids. The dairy maids were the single women who processed milk into butter and cheese. This work was done on the first floor. Enough cheese and butter were made daily to feed the several hundred folks who lived in the community in its heyday.  When the Colony dissolved, the building was carved into three apartments providing housing for village residents for 122 years, from 1861 until 1982. The Bishop Hill Heritage Association acquired the building in 1985. Extensive restoration was done over the next few years with the last major projects completed in 2014. Now it has one apartment, a second floor artist’s studio and a meeting room available for rent. The Heritage Association also hosts concerts and an annual lecture series focusing on local and regional history. 

The Dairy Building

Bishop Hill has a long history of agricultural innovation... place holder...

Bergren Implements / Hantverk Galleri

Though this is the third church the colonists built, the first being temporary and the second one of logs, this is still one of the oldest buildings in Bishop Hill. There are two floors of apartments with the church sanctuary above. The ground floor and first floor have 10 rooms each, which were small apartments for colony families, each family sharing one room. Remember, meals were eaten in common at Big Brick and the bathhouse and laundry were just across the town square, so there were no kitchens. The double entry stairs were built because women entered on one side and men on the other; once inside, men sat on the west side with women and children on the east side. The original walnut pews with turned maple spindles are still used for annual church services and the occasional wedding. The chandeliers are recreations based on the one chandelier that remained. Because this was a religious commune, the church was the heart and soul of the community. Services were held daily, and often lasted 3-4 hours on Sunday afternoons. The church is now owned and managed by the State of Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. The first floor houses another of the must see museums in town. Each room has a different display including a recreation of the typical apartment with original furniture and another with replica furniture you can see and touch. There is a display of tools and another of the archeology and restoration work and an exhibit on the immigrant experience, why they left and their journey to the wilderness that was Illinois. Once a year the public is invited for an unheated, candle-lite service at dawn on Christmas morning. This Julotta service gives you a sense of the original church programs with hymns sung in Swedish and coffee and rusks served after the prayers.


The Colony Church

On this site was an original colony era barn of the same dimensions as the one you see before you today. It burned down, so in 1979 another barn was purchased outside of town and then moved into Bishop Hill. Though this barn was built post-colony, it was built by colonists and their descendants and is of the same style and architecture. Inside you will see the details of this well-built, well-preserved example of colony era barn building. Today the Poppy Barn is a shop that specializes in antiques, local crafts, and garden supplies, with the Julbock as a totem garden animal.


Poppy Barn

In what is now right field of the ball diamond there once stood a large brick building that provided a large amount of the food for the community. By making a beer with a low alcohol content and then turning the spent grain into bread they could both drink their bread and eat it, too! In a time when cholera was not uncommon, beer was a healthy alternative to water. Because it was boiled, the beer was sterile, because the farm-house ale was brewed with wheat and/or barley, with fresh herbal quality hops, and sorghum, maple syrup and/or honey as a sweetener, it was very nutritious. And because the grain was then dried, toasted, and ground into a course flour it made a wonderful Swedish style bread, more like the Swedish Rye crackers you can still purchase today at the Colony Store. This way they received two different kinds of nutritional benefits from the same materials. The proximity to Big Brick meant much of the cooking and baking was done here and carried across the field to be served at the community dining hall. 
	
After the community dissolved the building became a gathering place and auditorium known as Woodman Hall. One of the few items remaining from this time is a large theatrical backdrop painted by Olof Krans. It is a dream like view of this Utopia on the Prairie that gives you a sense of what the town looked like in its glory days. The large scrim is now on display at the Bishop Hill Museum south of town. After years of neglect, the building was demolished in 1961. Though tragic, this loss helped to spark the effort to preserve the colony era buildings that are still standing today, leading to the creation of the Bishop Hill Heritage Association. 


Bakery and Brewery Building (1852-1961)

This unusual building is all that remains of a large complex that produced great quantities of food to feed the nearly 1000 residents of Bishop Hill. Imagine the bakery brewery across the street, Big Brick’s dining hall, an ice house, a smoke house, a slaughter house, large holding pens, and barns for livestock surrounding this smaller building. The first floor of this building was where meat was processed, butchered and salted, and then it was stored in the fully bricked basement. The floors were built to hold heavy carcasses of meat with 2” x 12” tongue and groove boards supported by 2” x 8” joists just 12” apart instead of the normal 16” - 18”. Because of the great quantities of salt used to preserve the meat, the wooden floors are super-saturated with salt and any metal footed furniture is sure to rust rather quickly.


The Meat Storage Building

From the fence in left field all the way to home plate, covering most of the infield and outfield, here stood the largest brick structure west of Chicago. Construction began in 1848 and as the community grew so did the building, nearly doubling in size by 1851. The ground floor was the communal dining hall that could host most of the 1000 residents for three meals a day. As soon as they finished cleaning up from breakfast, they started working on lunch, and when lunch finished they began dinner.  The upper three and a half floors held 96 apartments for community members. A few rooms were kept open for guests, like a hotel within the larger structure until the Bjorkland Hotel opened in 1852. Remember, because folks ate in common and the laundry and bathhouse was across the park, the apartments were small without a kitchen or bathing facilities. 

When the commune dissolved folks were given their apartments, like owning a condo within a larger structure. For want of space, some residents dug out parts of the basement for storage. This led to the building’s collapse in a fire in 1928. Though Big Brick is gone, you will find brick salvaged from the ruin recycled in the construction of other structures around town including the out houses on the edge of the ball field and a quaint cottage on the western edge of town.


Big Brick 

Imagine the gully from the Meat Storage Building continuing up through the ball diamond and into the town square. Look carefully and you will see one of the largest and oldest trees in the park is a sycamore, noticeable due to its peeling bark revealing a lighter colored under-bark and its distinctive spiky seed pods. Sycamore usually grow along a creek or stream bed. It was here, within this gully that the first wave of Swedish immigrants spent their first winter. They dug out an earthen cavern and built a log cabin facade. There was a smoke hole in the back so their fires could warm them on the frigid winter nights. There were several dug-outs, one for single women, one for single men, and a few for family groups, but it must have been a long, cold, and difficult winter. Their food supplies were eaten during the long journey from Sweden. This was the Western Wilderness so there was no farm market economy to sell them food. Starvation lead to sickness and nearly 100 souls perished. It is hard to imagine the hardship in these dark dank muddy holes in the ground. But not only did they survive, they eventually thrived, building the entire community you now see around you.


The Dugouts

Olof Olson was sent ahead to scout land. In New York, Olson met a Swedish Methodist minister, a Reverend Olof Hedstrom who told him his brother Jonas had just established the first Swedish Methodist Church in the wilderness of Illinois. Olof Olson travelled here and liked what he saw. He initially purchased 60 acres of Red Oak timber here along the Edwards River. The timber meant building material and the river meant year round water. Eventually the Bishop Hill Colony owned more 14,000 acres.


The Red Oak Grove & The Edwards River

Eric Janson was born December 18, 1809 in Biskopskulla, Sweden, or Bishop Hill in English. His father was a poor man but through hard work acquired a farm in Osterunda Parish where Eric spent his youth. During his youth Eric suffered from terrible bouts of pain, rheumatoid arthritis. But his youth and vigor would not allow him to act as an invalid. One day while he was plowing in the field the pain so overwhelmed him that he fell to the ground, unconscious. When he awoke a voice inside him said, “It is writ that whatsoever ye shall ask ye shall receive; all things are possible to him that believeth. If ye shall ask anything in my name I shall do it, sayeth the Lord.” Eric Janson knew this was the voice of God speaking directly to him. Eric lifted himself from the dirt. On his knees he began to pray most fervently that he could overcome his lack of faith, he might be forgiven this, and that his health be restored to him. When he arose the pain was gone never to return. He threw himself into a deeper understanding of the bible and committed himself to a celebration of the Word. He travelled the country side as a wheat flour salesman and preached to all who would listen. Some may have been mocking him with the title, but he wore it well… he became known as the Wheat Flour Messiah.He became a leader in the Devotionalist movement, but was evicted from Sweden. His followers came here to create this Utopia on the Prairie. His life is worthy of an epic film.

Originally called "the red frame house," It was initially a two over two room timber framed structure, lived in by Eric Janson and his family. The large porch and additions were added later. The house also faced the town square and was turned 90 degrees when the additions were made.  Later, it was used as boarding house.  It is now a private home currently closed to the public.

Eric Janson's House

Colony Hospital/Twinflower Inn 1855
The colony hospital was one of the largest hospitals in the area when it was first built in 1855. After the cholera epidemic, which took the lives of almost 200 colony members, it was determined that better medical facilities were needed. The first two floors were for patients and the third floor is known as the nurses quarters. There is also an apothecary in the cellar with a brick floor, brick walls and an arched, barrel-vault brick ceiling. Many of the timbers are red oak, cut from the grove just north of town, but because the railroad had come through Galva by the time this building was constructed, the floor boards are virgin timbered white pine 2” x 10” planks, likely harvested from the forests of Wisconsin. Because it was a hospital during the Civil War and Bishop Hill sent an entire brigade, we know Civil War soldiers came home here to recuperate. It remained a hospital after the colony dissolved, but was later converted to apartments. At the turn of the last century it was threatened with ruin. There are photos of the back third of the building collapsing. The hospital was purchased by the Bishop Hill Heritage Association and restored to its original condition. For a short while it was apartments once again before being converted to a bed and breakfast. It currently has five rooms to rent and specializes in hearty farm-styled breakfast that uses as many local ingredients as possible, including maple syrup made on the premises, reviving another colony era tradition.


The Colony Hospital - The Twinflower Inn Bed & Breakfast

Much more than a typical one-room school house common for this era, this large Greek Revival brick building has a large central classroom, a smaller back room, two bathrooms, and two smaller classrooms. The building was started in 1859 but was delayed for two years due to the financial difficulties of the colony. In the end, a small tax was levied on the community members to pay for its completion. Today the bell tower is near the front though originally it was more centered on the top of the building. The bell was originally purchased by Eric Janson in 1846 and moved here when the school opened. One of the first teachers here was also the first child born in the community. Carl Sandburg’s sister was also a teacher here and he would hop a freight train from Galesburg so he could visit his sister and recite poetry in her class. This was an active school building for more than 90 years, from 1861 - 1953. The more modern school was built that year and is visible behind this building. Today the Colony School is owned and maintained by The Bishop Hill Old Settlers Association and used for community gatherings. It is also available as a rental for special events.

The Colony School

This small county museum is located in a school that was built in the 1950s, and each former classroom holds a different thematic exhibit on topics such as one-room schoolhouses, military history, medical and dental history, agricultural history, and other topics. The museum is operated by a dedicated team of volunteers, including many retired teachers.

The Henry County Museum

Originally a two story building built in 1852, the size and shape was much like the Carpenter’s shop built the year before. Five years later they added a tavern, kitchen and innkeepers quarters upstairs to create a U-shaped building. The third floor, with a ballroom, additional hotel rooms and the glorious tower were added in 1861. 

One of several buildings owned and maintained by the State of Illinois Historical Preservation Agency the first floor is open to the public with several pieces of furniture original to the hotel era. There is wood grain painted on the trim and spatter paint on the walls, some of the finest examples of these colony era traditions. 

The hotel was built to house visiting businessmen who wished to buy the brooms, rugs, and other products produced in colony. When the colony dissolved the Bjorklund family took over management. Currently, it is open to the public several days a week, hours vary seasonally. During special events they fire up the brick ovens for baking cookies and bread.


The Colony Hotel

Originally built as a colony residence and bath house.

Originally built as a colony apartment building and bath house, it was also home to one of the founders and a trustee, Jonas Olson. This two and half story building was made with rack sawn Black walnut and oak siding. Recently it has become home to the Red Geranium an antique store. 


Walking Tour of Bishop Hill, Illinois

The Bishop Hill Creative Commons

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