Midway Village Museum

Alexis (Jennifer's best friend since high school) came to visit about a month ago. The next few posts will be about some of the places we went while she was in town. First is Midway Village in Rockford. We went on the first day that it was open for the season. It was a little chilly outside, so we were inside various buildings most of the time (we didn't take many photos, because the camera battery was low).

We started in the museum center, where several exhibits include photos and artifacts about the culture and history of Rockford and northern Illinois.



Part of the sock monkey exhibit; Rockford is "Home of the Sock Monkey"

Just outside of the museum center, before entering the historical village, is a small museum of doll houses created by a Rockford woman who was inspired by her world travels. There are several doll houses with different themes (like 1950s, Victorian, Japanese, Scandinavian, etc.). It was actually pretty fun to see the level of detail and materials used to make them.


The Old Dolls' House Museum

Our tour guide (who was dressed in period garb) took us into nine of the historical buildings (several are reproductions) in the village area: the bank, the schoolhouse, the church, the general store, the hardware store, the blacksmith shop, the hospital, the police station, and the Ralston house.

It was pretty fun. We hope to see more of the village buildings next time we go.