Historic Elsah Foundation

Saturday, March 25, 1 p.m.

Historic Elsah Foundation has an exciting opportunity to host the Principia Solar Car. Principia College Chemistry Professor Brian Kamusinga and members of the team are ready to give a talk on the car with questions and answers at Farley Music Hall with light refreshments served. The solar car will be parked at the First Church of Christ, Scientist parking lot away from traffic.

March 4, 2023 at 7 p.m. at Farley Music Hall

The Kid is a 1921 silent film, a comedy-drama starring – and directed by – Charlie Chaplin.

Refreshments available for purchase from The Elsah General Store.

Donations for Historic Elsah Foundation accepted and encouraged.

Save the date – Saturday, December 3, 2022, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Experience a simpler time in the quaint, historic Village of Elsah, Illinois. You’re invited to tour selected private homes decorated for the holidays. The whole village retains the character and feel of a bygone time. Many of the homes on the tour were constructed in the mid-19th century, often with the stone from the local quarry.

In addition to the private homes on the tour, other points of interest in Elsah, which are open to all, are the Village Museum, Farley Music Hall, the Village Civic Center and historic school room, Maple Leaf Cottage Inn, Green Tree Inn, Elsah General Store, Systir Studio and Life in the Postcard Gallery, The Look Factory, Christian Science Reading Room, and more.

There is no extra charge for a ride on a horse and carriage, which will circle the historic village during the home tour.

Advanced home tour ticket price $20
Day of event ticket price $25

Purchase Tour Tickets

Read about several Elsah residents and homes from previous tours:

• November 2022 St. Louis Post Dispatch, 3 Elm Street, Tyler House
• November 2021 St. Louis Post Dispatch,19 LaSalle Street, Piggot House
• November 2019 The Telegraph, 14 LaSalle Street, Onetto House
• November 2019 St. Louis Post Dispatch, 14 LaSalle Street, Onetto House
• August 2018 St. Louis Post Dispatch, 10 LaSalle Street, Onetto House
• November 2016 St. Louis Post Dispatch, 7 Mill Street, Schneider House
• April 2016 St. Louis Post Dispatch, 22 LaSalle Street, Keller Store
• November 2015 Home Feature in St. Louis Post Dispatch, 66 Mill Street, McNair House
• November 2014 Home Feature in St. Louis Post Dispatch, 80 Mill Street, Schneider House

House tour tickets may be purchased at Elsah General Store, Green Tree Inn, Maple Leaf Cottage Inn, and Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau in Alton. Advanced and online ticket purchases may be picked up at Farley Music Hall at 37 Mill Street. Day of event tickets may also be purchased at Farley Music Hall.

Historic Elsah Foundation celebrates, educates, and preserves the buildings in Village of Elsah. You may join Historic Elsah Foundation as a member at any time.

Saturday, August 27, 1-5 pm.

Music, refreshments, activities throughout Elsah Village. Historic Elsah Foundation will be represented in Farley Music Hall with baked goods.

More details at https://escapetoelsah.com/elsahfestival

Hosmer-Williams Lecture
Farley Music Hall, Elsah, Illinois
April 28, 2022 at 7:30 p.m.

We listen with interest and amusement when our parents tell us stories about our grandparents, and also when grandparents inform us of great grandparents. These intergenerational accounts—some yarns, some legends—create our personal histories; they confirm who we are.

Author, artist, and storyteller Janet Grace Riehl is heir to over 150 years of tales that the Riehl-Thompsons have swapped. These stories have shaped six generations of working and living atop the bluffs above the Mississippi in Jersey County.

In “The Stories that Shape Us,” (to be presented April 28, 2022, at 7:30 p.m., at Farley Music Hall, Elsah, Illinois) Janet will tell us about the power of stories and how her family’s narrative is woven into the life of our community.

Janet is a country girl who roamed the world and then followed her heart back home to Riverbend. She is the great-granddaughter of E. A. Riehl who founded the family home place—Evergreen Heights—in the 1860s, where she lives today. She is an award-winning author of “Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary,” and the companion audio book “Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music.” Her artwork has been shown internationally.

This program is one of this year’s Hosmer-Williams Lectures sponsored by Historic Elsah Foundation and underwritten by Liberty Bank: A United Community Bank.