Through an error at my daughter's school, her class completion was not loaded into the SOS records…read more We didn't know this until we arrived. The Ottawa team was so helpful, and even contacted the Springfield office to work with the school instructor to upload the completion just minutes before the office closed. Outstanding service! Kicking myself that I lost the names of the ones who helped us. But you know who you are. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Thank you to a very kind girl. Hope did an Amazing job. Start to finish. She made a difficult…read moresituation easier than I thought. Can't thank you enough for EVERYTHING. DANNY MACHAK.

I learned so much today! The mansion history was very interesting and the history about Ottawa was…read morefascinating too. The tour was ten dollars and was well worth it. I was told Christmas is a really great time to visit. I didn't even know about this mansion until a few days ago. I searched for other things around Starved Rock and foind the mansion. It was the best part of the day.

Beautiful turn of the century home. The docent was very knowledgeable (maybe a bit too…read moreknowledgeable). She shared the history of the home, it's pervious uses and work being done to restore it to the time of the Reddick family's occupancy. We stopped as an activity during a road trip but had to leave a before the end of the tour to get back on the road. The home had beautiful plaster detail, original wood work, windows, doors, and fireplaces. Definitely worth visiting to appreciate the architecture of days gone by.

A little bit down a side road from downtown Ottowa, this statue commemorates the Radium Girls who…read morewere tricked into sacrificing their health for corporate greed. Could be a little bigger, but it was nice that someone had added a scarf and flowers recently.

I have noticed a difference in High School & College Library versus that of your public library,…read morewhat is that difference you may ask.... Well I will tell you the difference is noise, and this library is. Loud loud loud! The problem with public libraries is just that they are open to the public and every weirdo and crazy is allowed access. Police calls and rude behavior are common where as in a school setting the clientele are usually interested in studying and learning, if not the librarian just may crack them with a ruler. On a more positive note the library has an annex where they can hold presentations and seminars typically at no charge, events may range from historical, to hobbies to children reading programs. Despite all the noise and distractions the Reddick library is involved in the community, for a quiet place to read I give it one star for community involvement I give them a 5.

Popped in to see what they had in the way of local history and learned they had a large roomful of…read morebooks focusing on the county, but including surrounding counties and the state - even reaching down to Mt. Vernon. Staff was very helpful. It was a Saturday, but the place was pretty quiet (and I'm a bit fussy about noisy libraries.) Bonus was buying a paperback book that offered an insider's view of the restaurant/bar business.

Quiet, lots of elderly people. Cool old school old fashioned traditional style place.read more

Great tour, highly recommended and will love to come back for the full 4-hours hour. I love the…read moreguide tour lady!!! Come and enjoy!!

My friend and I had an errand out in this area and decided to see what else there was to see while…read morewe were here. This museum (the home of the Hegeler and Carus families, who were involved in a local zinc company and also a publishing house, Open Court Press) is a national historic landmark and is unique because it was owned by the same family the whole time, & they never made any fundamental updates to the house so it's largely as it was when designed by WW Boyington (who also designed Chicago's Water Tower and the old Joliet prison) in the 1870s. Several rooms have been restored, but you can see in areas where it hasn't where time is taking its toll (for example, the main hall was painted with egg tempera paint, and that organic element [the egg] is now degrading after 150 years). Still, the parquet floors are amazing, and details like pocket doors, carved wooden decorations and historical elements like the speaker tube system in the walls for speaking through the house are unusual! The house also contains the only German-style turnhalle (gymnasium) in a historic home in the US. Other interesting details include an ornate butsudan (buddhist cabinet shrine) due to Hegeler's interest in Eastern religions. We just took the general tour ($15), but you can do half house (upper or lower half for $50 each) or whole house tours ($100). The longest one is apparently 3.5 hours with two breaks and children are discouraged since it is long. You must register for the tours as they max out at 6 people. Despite it saying "masks are required" and our temperatures taken at the door, our guide was initially trying to take his mask off to talk and the other couple on the tour followed suit. When my friend and I left ours on, they all put them back on at some point. The rooms do have 6 foot markers on the floors, but since some of the rooms aren't big, if you had a full tour group this would be an issue. There is an elevator so the Mansion is handicap accessible. Overall, this seems to be one of the bigger attractions in LaSalle, so take a tour if you're in town.