Ice cream social to be hosted during City Center week
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send your username and password to you.
By Connor Ashlock
On Monday, Aug. 23, from 6–8 p.m., the Jersey County Historical Society and Jerseyville Public Library will team up to host a good old-fashioned event full of family fun at the historic Jersey County Courthouse yard.
Sinclair Foods has donated all the ice cream necessary to host an ice cream social, while the library is providing Juggling Jeff, a juggler from the St. Louis area, to provide entertainment for the kiddos while the adults enjoy the sounds of country and classic rock provided by Jim and Carl Mager, which is being provided by the Jersey County Historical Society.
According to JPL Social Media Coordinator Beth Smilack, Juggling Jeff is a favorite around the library, being Children’s Librarian Laurie Ingram’s all-time favorite act to be hosted at the library.
The library and historical society have also both teamed up in honor of the new Jerseyville City Center by putting together a story walk around town that residents and visitors will get to enjoy as they take to the Jerseyville streets.
Pieces of the story will be found on buildings around town that will highlight what that particular building used to look like in its earliest years compared to its modern appearance.
Some entities, like City Hall, were once located in entirely different structures that no longer exist, and those will be showcased, too.
“The library is excited to be a part of the City Center weeklong celebration,” Smilack said. “We’re happy to be a part of this forward movement to not only celebrate the wonders of the area with our locals, but to share that awesomeness with the surrounding regions by becoming an exciting visitor destination.”
Ashleigh Hamilton is coordinating the historical society side of the celebration and is likewise excited for the chance to bring the historical society another step closer to the community its serves.
“I think it’s going to be so good for the community and great for people to get out and walk the area,” Hamilton said. “Bring the kids out, I definitely think it will be awesome.”
Hamilton is one of the younger and newer members of the historical society board.
Along with the library, the historical society has been seeking ways to become more involved in community life, not just in Jerseyville, but county-wide.
This will pose a great opportunity for the library and historical society to meet the community with a great family-oriented evening.
“I think everyone at the historical society is excited about it because it’s going to help highlight more of the city’s history and make people more aware of it,” Hamilton said.
The Jerseyville City Center encompasses 28 blocks of the City of Jerseyville and poses as a regionally unique area given the fact that when visitors and residents are within the bounds of the center, they are in close proximity to educational and cultural opportunities, as well near restaurants, boutiques, the Stadium Theatre and other venues that dot the historic Jerseyville landscape.
Improvements in the immediate area of the city center will be forthcoming in the future, due largely to the efforts of the Jerseyville Economic Development Council and the City of Jerseyville.
