Naperville Heritage Society

This was a hot mess the naperville fest is well overbooked. The start time was 12 noon. I got there about 11:45. The line to get in was neverending and it was already packed inside. I went in 2019 it was well organized and not overcrowded no waiting in long lines just walked right in with ticket. No more Naperville fest for me.

I was a vendor at the Naperville Soulfest 2022 under the leadership of Mike Brown. I must say this was the worst summer festival I every participated in. Unorganized from start to finish lie on what I would be giving a total mess

I was not here for their usual museum buildings. I was at a food truck event. There were a lot of wall ledges etc to sit on. I wish they'd had more picnic tables. I prebought tickets and entry went fast. The grounds are not that big so not doing tons of walking was nice. Foods were tasty.

The mansion is original from 1900, very educational, the blacksmith is also fun to learn.

Come get educated about Naperville's past and history. In downtown there's a few old buildings and you can take tours. Naper Settlement is a collection of some of the oldest buildings in town. Even if it's not free it's worth it for your groups. They also have summer camps if kids are actually interested. A lot of these historical villages are pretty corny.

It can be like that here, especially with the amateur actors and stuff like that. The old buildings are real, but most of these were transplanted. If you're a Naperville resident, it's free admission. It's about $20 for adults, and some children are free. There's pretty informative tours. If you're interested in history you'll think it's worth it.

The children can even attend summer camps if they really like it a lot. Events occur the entire year so be sure to come back. It has a holiday market featuring handcrafted items. They have light displays and other cool stuff.

A great mix of local historic buildings and a multiple use entertainment facility. Attended an Adult Halloween party. 2 great bands, fire dancers, magician, sword swallowing, food trucks, haunted houses and much more for $20.00.

This is a living museum, an outdoor interactive classroom where you learn about the history of the Midwest, and mostly of Naperville. It is a great learning experience for everyone of any age. I have been here several times, with out of town guests and on school field trips. My favorite is the Blacksmith shop where you can watch the blacksmith actually shape metal horseshoes over a hot fire.

They host many events here throughout the year. A beautiful location and fun for the family. Free parking lot is located behind the venue although there is street parking available.

Checked the website for hours and updates about the museum. All seemed fine and I left the City at 11:00 thinking I'd spend the day out there. I showed up at the entrance desk and was told the museum buildings are "closed" for the day to prepare for an event over the weekend. Here's the best part though -- I could pay full fare to walk the grounds. Huh?

I asked if I could at least look at the displays in the next room. Nope. Not unless I paid to get into the one small room. Ugh. I'd think a professionally managed museum such as this would update their website so patrons would not show up when it's closed and be disappointed. Swing and a miss Naper Settlement.

Growing up in Naperville I never went here as a highschooler but now that I have my own kids they absolutely love going to Naper settlement they learn a lot and don't seem tired of exploring the activities especially the metal shop where they get to see things made right before them and help fuel the fire! It's free if you are a citizen of Naperville! We can't wait to see what it's like during the Christmas holiday.

Ha, I was told I'm apparently like many of their visitors. That is, I never came here when I lived in Naperville (for 14 years and just a couple miles away) but returned to visit only after moving away. That's aight, I enjoyed my nice leisurely and educational visit on a quiet and pleasant Friday afternoon all the much better whilst looking back in time. It's quite nice that a town has the opportunity to preserve its own heritage in such a big and significant way.

Most towns don't have such resources, and Naperville is not small by any means, but still. So this is where I learned of citizen Carrie Martin Mitchell of the same Mitchell Mansion and the land and home she bequeathed to Naperville that lead to this Naper Settlement. For a $10 non-resident senior admission ($12 for other adults), you do get to see a lot of historic buildings and hear their stories - the Martin Mitchell Mansion, a chapel, a one-room school house, a post office, a log house, and a working blacksmith shop among other things. It's all on a self-guided tour, though some of the buildings do have volunteers telling the story.

I liked it all as well as wandering the attractive grounds, but particularly enjoyed the Mitchell Mansion, the post office, and the blacksmith shop due to interactions with their volunteers. In the visitor center, they also currently have a display on Naperville connections to World War II. Overall, highly recommended if you're a local history buff and/or simply want to educate your youngsters on American life in the later 1800's. Just fyi - Naper Settlement is also a spacious and easily accessible venue for events such as concerts, ethnic festivals, holiday festivals, and weddings.

Enjoyed one of Naperville's summer festival - Festa Italiana. They do a great job of family friendly entertainment venues, including food, music, vendors. Also enjoy the downtown businesses and parks. Plenty of free parking.

What fun! I won the Yelp! raffle for 2 tickets to NaperNights at NaperSettlement in Naperville to go see two bands play. It started with Yacht Rock by The Ron Burgandys followed by the Talking Heads tribute band, Big Suit. Thank you to the Marketing Director, Brittany, sending me the directions to claim my tickets! I walked in and check in was simple.

The #polishstinians brought our lawn chairs and purchased our tickets for drinks. There are vendors inside and they take cash. Have no fear of you don't have cash, they do have an ATM by BMO. I suggest getting money from your bank before to avoid the lines. We bought drinks and food from Tailgate Caterers. I suggest getting there about an hour early if you want to grab a good spot to park your chair/blanket.

I do suggest those foldable lawn chairs, everyone has those. If you get stuck on the ground behind people sitting on those lawn chairs, you won't be able to see much but people's butts! The lines are pretty long, but they move fast. You can't bring any drinks or food in, but the selection is fine for a quick bite. They also had a Nothing Bundt Cake vendor and gelato vendor so my sweet tooth was covered!

You were able to get a few types of beers and Rodney Strong wines. This was a fun night. They have bands play these Naper Nights one weekend in July, August, and September. It's only $15 if you go for a 5 hour evening, which is awesome. I'm grateful to Yelp! and NaperSettlement for the tickets and fantastic evening!

Simply amazing. I've visited lots of history museums around North America and most of them tend to be a bit smaller with only a handful of exhibits. Naper settlement on the other hand, spans 30 buildings and structures over 30 acres. These are high quality exhibits as well, with well designed displays, great tour guides / volunteers, and a large variety of things to learn about. For only $12 admission (and free to Naperville residents), I felt like I got my money's worth and would love to visit here again for a special event!

A must go place and under the radar as well! Very educational and beautifully kept, handicap accessible as much as the building let them, since it's from the 1800 +. Thanks to the people and volunteers who work there, they do work with passion, they made my kids very engaged with the explanation of the history of the settlement. We will go again even though we are not Naperville residents.

Since it's winter most everything was closed, but it was nice to have a trail to follow and lots of audio guided tours to choose from as I walked. Grounds were clean and well maintained (and salted), definitely want to come back with kiddos after covid and in warmer weather. Took a star off since I paid online and there was no signage or open buildings nearest the parking lot where I could ask for assistance when I arrived.

It's a darling little site. Everyone was so friendly and knowledgeable. The tour guides were engaging and interesting. The grounds are beautiful and there are plenty of places to sit and just enjoy the view. It was really cool learning about the history behind the buildings and the mansion in particular was truly beautiful. Highly recommended!

I will never bring my family to Naper Settlement again. I drove all the way from Darien with a 1 year old and a 5 year to go to their splash pad, which I had pre-registered for on their website. Even though their website says 4 and under are free, they refused entry to us because I did not have a ticket for my 1 year old. I understand limiting capacity but there were maybe 20 people in the whole place on a Tuesday morning.

Very disappointed in their service and they should consider updating their website to be more clear that infants require a splash pad ticket. In addition, the woman at the front desk told me they were sold out for today but when I got home, I could have easily added another ticket for the splash pad. Why couldn't she have given me that option at the front desk?

Visited here as a child, maybe 3rd grade, and our whole class had a blast. Saw something about it recently and thought my wife might enjoy a visit as she's a bit of a history buff. Luckily we had beautiful weather and a great visit, especially during the mansion tour.

They do a really excellent job with living history and have lots of excellent historical buildings to visit. The interpreters are terrific and clearly love what they do. I wish that they offered admission discounts to educators/students/librarians, though. Moreover, I think they would really benefit from doing a "Haunter Naper Settlement" event, since there's a lot of fun lore about the grounds.

We went during a July 2017 weekday to this outdoor, living, history museum. 12 acres of buildings dated 19th century to the present, with costumed villagers and special exhibits that tells the story of daily life in Naperville as it changed from a simple frontier outpost to a bustling turn-of-the-century community. I love to expand my history knowledge and even better that i try to make it fun for my daughter.

My daughter especially love the playscape area that looks like a wooden fort. Theres: 1.) splashpad. Theres water cannons and groubd misters so bring towels! My daughter was able to cool down and play with water! 2.) playground. Consists of a twisting slide, talking tube pipes, and telescope/periscope. What kid not love to explore new playgrounds! 3.) trading post. Kids can role play trading goods.

That only lasted a few minutes for my daughter and she ran around it. 4.) Conestoga wagon: For picture opportunity. 5.) animal tracks: kids can guess which animal belongs to the animal tracks. 5.) Sensory Prairie Garden: See plants the pioneers would be grown in a garden. 6.) activity cart, which we misses out on. 7.)ittle free library. Take a book or donate one!

I loved walking through time, sightseeing and going inside these buildings. There are 30 buildings and I especially love the colonial schoolhouse. We also borrowed a wagon for my daughter so she isn't too exhausted from walking and heat. No restaurants or cafes here! People can bring outdoor picnic baskets and vending machines.

Much better for the kringle market than the city! Not as jammed. Just as fun. : If you like German food and cool handmade xmas stuff.ornaments and such youll have a good time! 1star down cause its a bit pricy. Still a fun time tho!

This past weekend we went to the Naper Settlement to look around Ythe Christkindlmarket. First, the parking was $5. I think the high school lot should have been free. Once there, we walked by many little huts full of Christmas ornaments, food, and German things. The booths were all crowded, most took only cash. There were lines to get into the larger exhibits. The 50's Christmas exhibit was small but nice. All in all, i would not attend again unless down that way for something else.

We stopped here for the Chistkindlmarket and that was very enjoyable too. Many of the buildings were closed do to the market being opened but we will go back for the other features of this settlement as they looked cool and I love history and historical items also. It was not very packed due to the times we went here.

This review is ONLY for the Christmas lights, since I haven't yet made it out here otherwise. Overall, they did a cute job of decorating the place, and it's nice to wander through while you drink your gluhwine from the Christmas market. We have gotten spoiled by lights in the city, since there aren't a whole ton of decorations up (you can do the entire lap in about 20-30 minutes, and that was with a crowd). I'll have to go back to check out the rest of the museum when it's not at night and cold!

Tour the Buildings, Meet Historical Characters! It is one thing to see local history. At Naper Settlement you are immersed in it. Costumed interpreters in period clothing portray historical characters and answer all of your questions. There are living history programs for school groups and Scouts. Time your trip for a special event like Spring Fever, Civil War Days, Oktoberfest, or All Hallows Eve if you can. Naper Settlement, in downtown Naperville, includes 26 amazing historical buildings in a beautiful 12 acre park. (See photos.) These buildings were moved here from the area and carefully rebuilt and beautifully restored.

Note that this is a fairly large outdoor museum se expect to do some walking. Check out the nearby Riverwalk and Millennium Carillon if you have time. From April through October admission is $12. Winter admission is $5. Don't miss the Print Shop, Blacksmith Shop, Fire Station, and the Martin-Mitchell Mansion. Check ahead for the many special events, reenactments, summer concerts, and hours at napersettlement.org.

Ever been to Greenfield Village in Detroit? You know, where they have all the historic buildings and demonstrations of old-timey craftworks? Well, this is a much more modest version, dedicated to Naperville's history. They also have special events like Civil War Days and Oktoberfest, and my FAVORITE thing: the Naperville Woman's Club Art Fair (smaller and less expensive than the Riverwalk one, and set on the beautiful shady grounds of Naper Settlement!) I like that they have a penny smashing machine in their visitor center. It's definitely a place worth exploring if you live here, or a nice little day trip if you are in the Chicagoland area. Historical, educational and just plain fun!

"Churn butter churn, churn butter churn. We are waiting at the gate, waiting for our butter cake." We sang this song as we churned our cream into butter and soon after shared it with others. It felt like it took forever, but was so good; I might make my kids churn butter for Thanksgiving!;) Where else around here can you help keep the fire in a blacksmith shop going, print your own bookmark with a press, saw a log, and dance a reel with a 10 yr old boy? Nowhere.

Just Naper Settlement. A living museum in the heart of downtown Naperville. If it's cold outside, dress accordingly! They didn't have central heating in the 1800s.;)

We had our wedding ceremony at Naper Settlement chapel, and it was absolutely perfect. Built in 1864, the Gothic Revival architecture style was exactly what we were looking for. Something different and beautiful, we were immediately sold on having our wedding here. My husband and I knew that a traditional ceremony wasn't going to fly so we were hoping to find a nice non-denominational church.

When my MIL suggested Naper Settlement, hubs and I agreed to check it out. We went to the open house in February of 2014, and without hesitation dropped off our deposit the next day to ensure we'd lock in our date. Our wedding was in an "off peak" month, so we received the winter rate for our two hour rental time slot (plus 1 hour for rehearsal).

Then being during the holidays, the chapel was already decorated, therefore saving us a HUGE amount of money. We didn't have to purchase or rent flowers, pew bows, etc.we didn't even need an aisle runner. The skies were partly cloudy and it was a "balmy" 48 degrees on 12/13/14, which allowed me to wait outside before my entrance. We had rehearsed with me possibly entering from downstairs if the weather wasn't great but thankfully I didn't have to go that route.

Keep in mind that you may not be able to enter through the large doors as planned if there's lousy weather on your big day. We dealt with many different employees in the ten months of correspondence. Initially there was Becca, then Heather, and then a few others. Regardless of the rapid turnover, every employee was helpful and was quick to respond to any email inquiries we had. I couldn't be more pleased with how well everything went on our big day. As Amy R. said, it's worth every penny!