Residents of Calumet City had a little more to love on Valentine’s Day in 1975 — that’s the day the Calumet City Historical Society was legally incorporated.
When he was just 19, cofounder Joseph Plovich approached librarian Lorraine Gates about forming a society. The meeting on Nov. 12, 1974, to create a historical society drew 40 people and was guided in part by members of the nearby Hammond Historical Society. Two months later, Calumet City’s society became official.
“The first display was photos and artifacts with the town name on it,” said Plovich, who continues to serve on the board and regularly attends meetings even though he’s since moved to Palatine.
The 1973 graduate of Thornton Fractional North High School said the “sense of community” is his favorite thing about the society. “We have formal meetings, but it’s still colleagues. It’s community.”
Plovich said the organization’s mission is “to preserve the history of Calumet City, but in more of a living way.” Part of that is including everyday items in its collection, such as a dental chair and other artifacts. “It lets people see how the past was.”
Society President Mike Wolski, a Calumet City resident who’s been a member for about 20 years, said the society’s collection was built up gradually, with a few displays in area businesses and buildings.
“In the early days they had a couple of cabinets in the library and had some displays in the library and in the lobby of a bank (Public Federal Savings and Loan Association) until the library built in 1951 closed in 1986,” he said.
That’s when the city gave the building to the society. “They were given permission to move into that building and have been there ever since,” he said.
Wolski, who has a background in historic preservation and likes local history, said the society has been slowly growing, especially in the last five years, and it has just over 200 members on its rolls.
“It’s definitely a mix,” is how he described the membership. “Many older residents who lived there a long time, some who once lived there and would like to come back. Not every town has a society, so other people come by because they like our history programs.”
“That’s why our society is more vibrant. It’s not a well-to-do town, but we have our history,” Plovich said, adding that it has the most members of a historical society in the Calumet region and is growing. “We have a lot of volunteers who do things.”
The society offers monthly programs, which include a membership meeting and socializing before someone gives a history talk. “That format has kind of turned into a hit,” Wolski said. “We average about 40 people at a meeting. All meetings and programs are open to the public.”
The society’s hours vary depending on the season. It’s open from 1 to 4 p.m. Thursdays in January; 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays, 1 to 4 p.m. Thursdays and 1 to 5 p.m. the second Sunday of the month February to April and from June to November; 1 to 4 p.m. Thursdays in May; and 2 to 4 p.m. Thursdays in December.
All of its programs in 2025 helped celebrate its 50th anniversary. “All of them covered a highlight of something the society did over the past 50 years, including its founding, posting a Heritage Day, installing a historical marker for the LIncoln train in 2008,” Wolski said.
Last year, the society celebrated the municipality’s 100th year of being named Calumet City.
“We have archives with documents about Calumet City and when the village was first formed as the village of West Hammond in 1893, then it became the city of West Hammond in 1912 and then it became the city of Calumet City in 1924. And our programming is a mixture of local history and regional history and history in general,” Wolski explained.
One part of its mission is to help save historic buildings. “We saved the second library, built in 1951. When that library moved out in 1986, at first (the city) created a cultural center, but then the society ended up using the whole building and was able to save it. That’s the home base and the city was very supportive in giving us the building.”
Wolski said remembering the past is important. “I think it tells the story about how parts of the town got here as we see them today and the work that people did to build up the town with every generation.”
Historic buildings include St. Andrew Catholic Church, which dates back to 1891 and is now called Jesus Shepherd of Souls Catholic Parish. Another one is City Hall, which dates to 1924. “In the 1990s they did a restoration of it and the City Council does a good job of preserving and using it,” he shared. “Memorial Park fieldhouse dates to 1924 and they also did a restoration of it years ago.”
Another important building that was saved was the Heritage Log Cabin, which was discovered by a couple of members after being used as a garage covered with siding that was slated for demolition. “They asked the owner if they could take it or move it. It was disassembled and reassembled, and it turns out that the Schrum family, one of the founding families in the 1860s, actually had lived in that cabin,” Wolski shared.
He said his favorite artifact is the 1935 post office display, which includes a clerk window and mail-sorting slots. “They did a very good job when they tore down the post office in 1986 … members saved parts of the building and the clerk’s window, and it’s really cool to see how they made it,” he said. “The postmaster was very sympathetic about the demolition of it and allowed the society members to take parts of the building.”
People, especially younger ones, might be surprised by at least one aspect of Calumet City’s past.
“Many of the older people will remember all the taverns, particularly on State Street, that are no longer around today. That was a reputation it had that’s been erased over the past generation,” Wolski said. “I remember them still being there in the 1990s, but then … the city felt it was finally time to get rid of it. There were (previous) mayors who wanted to close things down and wanted to get rid of it but it still survived.”
Plovich said society officers recently learned a surprising fact. “Someone who knows her told us that the Crate & Barrel founder is from Calumet City – Carole Brown Sega, class of 1956 at Thornton Fractional North. They traveled and she wanted to get imports into the city.”
Another notable resident is Mike Tomczak, a former quarterback for the Chicago Bears and other NFL teams.
Plovich said the society’s – and the city’s – most important element is its people. “They’re history and they share what happened. It’s not just books and photos.”
Sadly, the society’s oldest member, who was still fairly active, died earlier this year. “Dorothy Polus came to most meetings and was 101 when she died,” Wolski said. “She was the oldest member, having joined in 1976.”
Calumet City was shaped by its location. Being “a state line community” right next to Indiana affected the city, which Plovich called “a junior partner of Hammond,” thanks to that city’s huge hospital and department store downtown. We have our different neighborhoods, with the Polish neighborhood on the south side in the 1950s, the Gold Coast … where the city really grew is west into the Torrence Park area,” he said.
“Calumet City has gone through changes. I feel like people will rediscover it as a good place to live. It has good housing stock,” Plovich shared. “This could be a rediscovery of the city.”
Although the society is growing, new members are welcome. Yearly membership costs $15 for people 18 and older, $20 for households with two more adults in the same house and $25 for organizations and businesses. The fee includes a newsletter. Visit calcityhistory@aol.com or call 708-832-9390 or 773-814-4520.
Melinda Moore is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.