Invited guests of the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority (SSCVA) and the Lake Court House Foundation were treated to an initial sneak peak of the new John Dillinger Museum at the Historic Lake County Court House.
The museum, which originally stood at the Indiana Welcome Center in Hammond, will have a three-room floor plan that chronologically guides guests through the life and times of Dillinger.
And while the overall theme of the museum is not meant to be a celebration of Dillinger’s life, but rather serve as a historical reminder that “crime doesn’t pay,” Crown Point Mayor, David Uran, hopes that some good will come to the city from the criminal’s bad deeds.
“We’re very, very proud of our Downtown,” Uran said. “We know what it means to our community, what it means to our families to put our best foot forward.”
The museum will be new to Crown Point in 2015, but the idea of bringing it to the city where the infamous criminal made his famous “wooden gun escape” has been one many years in the making.
“We started on this adventure with another young Mayor in 1994,” SSCVA President and CEO, Speros Batistatos, said. “We took a trip down to Nashville, IN (home to a collection of Dillinger artifacts owned by historian, Jon Pinkston). We thought ‘what a great thing it would be to have this collection in Crown Point, Indiana.’ It only took us 21 years.”
But, as Batistatos joked, “in Lake County time, that’s not really a long time.”
On the surface, the museum will be a wonderful and comprehensive collection of Dillinger’s life. Including an array of personal effects that stretches from Dillinger’s formative years, all the way to his death. Those wanting to get a glimpse into the life and times of America’s first “Public Enemy #1” will not be disappointed.
But the SSCVA, as well as officials from the town of Crown Point, hope that the museum will bring more awareness to the wide selection of boutique shops located inside the courthouse; as well as the Lake County Historical Museum, housed on the second floor of the building.
“We brought this museum here to increase traffic to the shops,” President of the Lake Court House Foundation, Martha Wheeler, said. “They are the reason this museum is here.”
The shops, which range from toys, to ice cream, to clock repair, will stand just a stone’s throw from the museum in the lower level of the courthouse.
When completed, the museum will include some of the old artifacts from the previous museum, as well as new, never-before-seen items from the SSCVA’S own collection. The new museum plans to host a grand opening on July 22, 2015 – the 81st anniversary of the death of John Dillinger.