Petersburg's Holiday Season Happens in Other People's Living Rooms

Nearly every room in the house faces Lake Petersburg. Dorothy Grosboll planned it that way in 1965. She picked a plan, adapted it to the lot and worked with contractor Harry Wilson so the tri-level would sit into the site and look out at the water. It was all-electric, which was unusual for the time. It was also one of the first homes built on the lake after lots opened to the public.

The house now belongs to her niece, Jan (Grosboll) Costello, who has lived there more than 24 years. Over that time the kitchen was opened to the beamed living and dining room. The lower level got a bar and a wood ceiling. One bedroom became a "circus room" honoring Jan's circus heritage. You can see it in person on the weekend of Saturday, December 5. It's one of five houses and one church on this year's Menard County Historical Society House Tour.

That tour sets the pattern for the season. Petersburg's November and December calendar is mostly about getting inside places that stay closed the rest of the year: private homes, a bed-and-breakfast parlor, a private arboretum and a veterans' post dining room. Neighbors host nearly all of it, and a short list of downtown storefronts and local sponsors keeps it going.

A house tour you can preview in the paper

The Petersburg Observer's announcement on October 23 confirmed the date and lineup. It also said the paper would profile one tour house each week, with more details to come. The Costello lake house was first. That means anyone who reads the Observer each week through November can learn the history of each stop before walking through the door.

Hours, ticket prices, ticket outlets and the featured church for 2026 haven't been announced yet. Past tours give a sense of how it usually works, as long as you remember those details belong to earlier years:

• Hours. The December 2, 2023 tour ran from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Ticket outlets in 2024. The Observer listed Crazy Daisy, Potter Drugs and Riverbank Lodge in Petersburg, Debbie Boeker's Beauty Salon in Tallula, and Yellow Door locations in Petersburg and Oakford.
• The church in 2024. First Christian Church at 210 S. 8th Street was the stop that year.

The ticket list is worth a second look. A historical society tour of private homes depends on a pharmacy, a lodge, a gift shop and a beauty salon in the next town to sell admission. Those same kinds of businesses show up again and again on this season's calendar.

Three Pines turns a B&B into a lecture hall

Three Pines Bed and Breakfast at 510 W. Sheridan is a guest house most of the year. On three Sunday afternoons this fall, it doubles as a classroom. The Springfield Area Arts Council and Three Pines are hosting the second round of "Tea and Revolution," a lecture series marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War that followed. Programs run from 3 to 5 p.m. with tea and snacks, and each one ends with Q&A and discussion. William Furry, former executive director of the Illinois State Historical Society, introduces each program.

The series opened October 25 with actor and historical interpreter Brian Fox Ellis performing a first-person John Adams. Two programs are left, and each brings the story closer to home:

1. November 22, "Women of the Revolution." Three Pines innkeeper Aubrey Talley and guests cover women's roles in the founding, from those who took up a musket to those who held the home front.
2. December 13, "Citizen Soldiers from Menard and Sangamon Counties." A remembrance of Revolutionary War volunteers buried in central Illinois. It includes a reading of their names and stories about local men who fought in the war.

According to the Observer's write-up, the series is funded by Alliance Community Bank, Riverbank Lodge, Three Pines B&B and Moonbeams and Magpies, along with several individual donors from Menard and Sangamon counties. Riverbank Lodge is on both lists. It sold house tour tickets in 2024 and helps pay for this year's lectures.

The arboretum at the center of the League's year

The New Salem Lincoln League supports Lincoln's New Salem, and its annual fundraiser is one of the bigger fall gatherings around Petersburg. This year's date is Sunday, November 1, at Indian Creek Farmstead, 19468 Curtis Blacktop, starting at 12:30 p.m. The Observer's announcement lists a meal by Hamilton's Catering, desserts from Red Barn Desserts, a cash bar and no silent auction this year. The Observer listed tickets at The Crazy Daisy, Alliance Bank, through League board members and on the League's online ticket page, which listed the banquet at $40. That's the same downtown gift shop that sold house tour tickets, and a bank whose name also appears among the lecture sponsors.

The honorees fit the season's theme. The Observer reported that the League chose to honor Guy and Edie Sternberg at the fundraiser. The Sternbergs started Starhill Forest as private gardens in 1976. Their work propagating and preserving trees led to a formal partnership with Illinois College, and the site now serves as an arboretum for education and research and as a living museum. Illinois College places Starhill Forest about five miles southeast of Lincoln's New Salem in southern Menard County. Menard County Trails and Greenways describes it as a private, 50-acre arboretum where visitors are welcome by appointment. Like the houses on the December tour, it is a private place that opens to visitors on its owners' terms.

Veterans Day at Post 6871

Menard County VFW Post 6871 is hosting a Veterans Day spaghetti dinner on Wednesday, November 11, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. A veteran and one guest eat free.

That dinner comes at a time of change for the Post's kitchen. In the same October 9 Observer item, the Post said its restaurant lease was ending and that it was looking for a new operator. It was also weighing a possible startup and said it hopes to reopen the restaurant in the future. For now, the Veterans Day meal is a chance to sit down in that dining room while the Post works out what comes next.

The season on one page

Meanwhile, New Salem goes to winter hours

While the private spaces open up, the public site goes on a shorter schedule. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources lists Lincoln's New Salem Visitor Center and Village as open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., from November through March. It's closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Sunday is the day the Tea and Revolution lectures meet, and it isn't on New Salem's winter schedule. If you're bringing family to see both, plan the village for a Saturday morning before 4 p.m. and Three Pines for the Sunday afternoon. Check the IDNR page again close to your visit, since holiday hours can change.

The Lincoln League raises money for New Salem, the Observer runs the house previews, and the lectures are hosted in a B&B owner's front rooms. Petersburg's best-known historic site cuts its hours for winter just as its neighbors start opening their doors.

If the house tour has you curious how a 1965 lake house, or any older Petersburg home, has been updated over the decades, the team at Cindy Grady Bunch would be glad to talk it through with you, even if you're just comparing notes after the tour on December 5. When you're ready, request a free consultation and home valuation and we'll show you how homes like yours are valued across Menard and Sangamon counties today.