Ilinois Dick Tracy Museum Closes

NORTHWEST HERALD: Funding woes foil Dick Tracy museum
By JENN WIANT - jwiant@nwherald.com
Monday, February 04, 2008

WOODSTOCK – The Chester Gould – Dick Tracy Museum, housed in the Old Courthouse building on the Woodstock Square since 1991, will close June 1 for financial reasons.

Jean Gould O’Connell, daughter of “Dick Tracy” comic strip creator and former Woodstock resident Chester Gould, said the museum had been struggling financially.

“It’s been happening slowly for the past couple of years,” she said. “It was much too difficult to get fundraisers going. It was the same few people [who] were called upon to do it. We just found that we couldn’t make a go of it.”

O’Connell is pleased that the museum, which is privately funded, has lasted this long.

“I’ve put my heart and soul into that museum and tried to make it something that Woodstock would be proud of,” she said. “This is a very sad time for us, but we’ve had very many wonderful years there.”

The estimated 300 pieces of memorabilia and art in the museum, most of which had been donated by people all over the country, will be returned to the owners, O’Connell said. Beverly and Cliff Ganschow, owners of the Old Courthouse, said they would like to maintain a small, permanent display of Chester Gould and “Dick Tracy” memorabilia in a room of the building.

Woodstock Mayor Brian Sager was sad to hear about the museum’s closing.

“The Dick Tracy Museum was a wonderful resource for members of the community, as well as the school youth, and certainly it provided a draw for some visitors to our community,” Sager said. “We certainly are going to miss the museum, but we do understand, with respect and appreciation to the family, the decision that they have had to make.”

Fundraising for the Dick Tracy statue being planned for the grassy area outside of the Old Courthouse had been put on hold, O’Connell said.

Kevin Stebbins, who organizes the annual Dick Tracy Days Parade in June, said the festival probably would cease to exist after the museum closed. The parade will no longer be associated with the comic strip character and will become a community parade, Stebbins said. It has been scheduled for a week earlier this year, on Father’s Day.

When he learned Monday that the museum would close, Stebbins said he was “kind of shocked,” but had expected it to happen eventually.

“I know that they’ve had some financial difficulties in the past and they haven’t had very much support in the community,” he said. “... [But] I wasn’t expecting it to happen so soon.”

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Crap! I was thinking of trying to go to Dick Tracy Days this year. So much for that... bummer.