Press Release - Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Press Releases
No Data
SCHEDULE TEMPORARILY REDUCED AT BISHOP HILL'S BJORKLUND HOTEL
BISHOP HILL, IL - The operating schedule at Bishop Hill State Historic Site's Bjorklund Hotel will be temporarily reduced due to staff retirement. The Hotel will be open only on Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. effective January 2, 2006 but will resume its five-day-per-week schedule as soon as new staff can be hired.
The rest of the Bishop Hill community, including the state-operated Colony Church and the Bishop Hill Museum, will remain open as usual.
.
Built in the mid 1850s, the Colony Hotel, which was owned communally by the residents of Bishop Hill, hosted as many as 20 visitors a day. Sven Bjorklund, the hotel's second proprietor, lent his name to the large lodging house, which included guest rooms,
common areas and a third-floor ballroom. The architecture of the hotel complemented other colony buildings, and the interior was nicely furnished. It was owned privately after the colony's dissolution in 1861, and in the 1920s was converted to an apartment building. The State of Illinois purchased the building in 1968, and has since operated it as a historic tourist attraction.
The Bjorklund Hotel re-opened to the public July 16 following a $1.01 million rehabilitation project.
The Colony Church and Bishop Hill Museum are open Wednesday through Sunday through May 28, 2006; the Bjorklund Hotel will resume this schedule once additional staff have been hired. The Bjorklund Hotel, Colony Church and Bishop Hill Museum, all of which are administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, will be open seven days per week from May 20 to September 4, 2006 as a result of a budget initiative by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Press Releases
No Data