1601 Maine Street
Quincy, Illinois
217-224-7669
The Quincy Museum began as a small museum in a building constructed by Dr. James Reed in 1962 for Native American artifacts in Indian Mounds Park. In 1963 Dr. John L. Snow was selected to manage the museum under Dr. Snow and the Board of Directors guidance the museum grew and expanded. In 1969 the museum moved to Quinsippi Island, an island in the Mississippi River to a building erected with the help of the Moorman Manufacturing Company, and the Quincy Park District. The move sparked new interest in the museum and gifts and donations increased for the collections. In 1977 the Smithsonian Museum took a special interest in the museum and helped to expand and redesign the exhibits for the museum's nationally important collection of Native American artifacts and their natural history collections. In 1980 the Richard F. Newcomb House became available for purchase in 1980. After leasing the home from the Quincy College for one year the museum purchased the property in 1981.
The museum’s new home is in a house built by Richard F. Newcomb, who at the time was an executive of the Gem City Paper Mill. Newcomb purchased the 2-1/2 acre lot in 1880 and razed the Greek revival house that was on the site. Newcomb proceeded to build a Richardson Romanesque Revival Style house built of buff colored Berea Sandstone quarried from Ohio. The Richardson Romanesque style of architecture shows a broad round arches, massive stone exteriors with architectural ornamental carvings. The house has three stories with three towers on the front of the house and a large front porch. The first floor features a central living hall around which were grouped a formal parlor, a den, an informal sitting room, a dining room, and a library. The second floor featured a large central hall with bedrooms on the sides. The interior of the house is notable for the variety of fine woods used in its construction and the elaborately carved wood in the central hall, the decorative art-glass in a great number of windows and wood carvings above the door sills and window sills. The hardware fixtures are of considerable interest and each floor has its own separate pattern. The Richard F. Newcomb House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The rooms on the first floor, including the front parlor, the Great Hall, the den and the sitting room, are furnished in a Victorian era style to reflect the era when the Newcombs first lived in the home. Features on the second floor are the Clat Adams Store Front, exhibits on local history and rotating annual exhibits on history and cultures. Also on the second floor is the Ellington Stone, which may be proof that LaSalle explored the Middle Mississippi River Valley before Joliet and Marquette. The third floor houses a dinosaur exhibit, an exhibits on Mississippi River wildlife, and Native American exhibits which includes a full-sized Illini longhouse.
Visiting the Quincy Museum
Visiting Hours
Tuesday - Sunday: 1 pm - 5 pm
The Quincy Museum is closed from November & January through March
Admission
Explore the community of Quincy
