Veterans museums join forces to create first-ever campus

Photo: Founder Lorenzo Fiorentino shows off the Chicagoland Veterans Campus

Five Veterans museums from across the Chicago area have banded together to create a game-changing venture in Addison.

The Chicagoland Veterans Campus will be located at 39 Army Trail Boulevard in a stately 100-year-old former school building owned by St. Paul Lutheran Church.

Participating in the creation of the campus are the Chicagoland Combined Veterans Museum & Library (CCVML), Camp Grant Historical Society Museum (CGHSM), Hellenic American Veterans Memorial & Museum (HAVMM), Italian American Veterans Museum (IAVM) and 10th Mountain Division Museum (10MDM).

Spearheading the project is CCVML President Lorenzo Fiorentino, a retired Army Major and First Vice President of the IAVM.

“Our goal is to create a full-service destination for Veterans and those who support them in the Chicago area,” Fiorentino says. “When it’s completed, it will be the most comprehensive center serving and honoring our Veterans in the Midwest.”

The three-story building is graced with eight open, well-lighted classrooms that will be converted into museum spaces and rotating exhibits. The campus will also include a full-time Veterans Resource Center and Service Officer and, with the departure of the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, the only military library in the Chicago area. The library will double as a meeting and presentation space, with full AV capability

An auditorium and banquet facility owned by the church are available for use by the campus and its guests, and there’s plenty of free parking. The building is in Addison’s historic district, a stone’s throw from the village hall and adjacent to a landscaped park containing a Veterans memorial. Weekly summer concerts and major events throughout the year in the park will bring thousands of potential visitors within easy reach of the campus.

Grant proposals are being written and funds are being raised by all five museums while the campus seeks 501(c)3 status. Tax-deductible donations to cover construction costs are being made to the CCVML in the interim.

For more information, contact Fiorentino at 708-606-0742.

To help bring this groundbreaking project to fruition, click here.