By TODD WESSELL
Journal & Topics Editor

Rosemont’s Museum of Hummels and the offices of the Rosemont Chamber of Commerce will move into the village’s new village hall building near the fashion outlet mall once major interior work is completed in 2023 or 2024.

The Donald E. Stephens Museum of Hummels is named after the late mayor of Rosemont who was the father of current Mayor Brad Stephens. It is considered the largest public display of Hummel figurines in the world. Donald Stephens was an avid collector. For the last several years the museum and chamber offices have been located in a shopping center on the 9500 block of Higgins Road.

Earlier this month, village board members approved the purchase of the former four-story Cisco office building that’s located near the Chicago Fashion Outlet Mall and the Rosemont Theater. The purchase price was $13 million and the decision ended plans to construct a new village hall in Rosemont’s Pearl District near Balmoral Avenue and the Tri-State Tollway (I-294). With the purchase of the Cisco building, village offices including most of the public safety department and many tenants in the current municipal building on Devon Avenue will make the move. 

According to Mayor Stephens, plans at this time call for the Hummel Museum, the chamber offices, the village board room, and a small museum about the history of Rosemont to occupy much of the first floor. Public safety will occupy about 60% of the first floor and all of the second floor. Municipal offices will be located on the fourth floor.

Several million dollars of renovation work is earmarked for most of the interior of the 121,000 sq. ft. structure. Once that work is completed, said the mayor, all new tenants of the building will move in.