Yerkes Observatory gearing up for summer tourism season with plans to open to public in May – Lake Geneva Regional News

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Walt Chadick, director of programs and external affairs of Yerkes Observatory, proudly shows off some of the renovations that have been at the observatory, which is set to be open for public tours this summer.
Renovation continues at Yerkes Observatory, as the building is scheduled to be open for public tours this summer.
Former classrooms at Yerkes Observatory will be used for lectures, social gatherings and meeting rooms as part of programs that will be conducted in the historic building.
Yerkes Observatory will feature several exhibit rooms which will include information about the history of astronomy.
The Ann Drake Library will include research books from the 1890s and 1960s, as well as copies of the “Astrophysical Journal,” which was published at the observatory for about 70 years.
One of the highlights of the Yerkes Observatory tour will be the “great refractor” telescope, which is currently being renovated.
Walt Chadick, director of programs and external affairs at Yerkes Observatory, operates an elevator leading up to the “great refractor” telescope.
An astronomy library, which was used by college students, will be part of the “hidden spaces’ tours at Yerkes Observatory.
Old computer equipment will be used to set up an IT exhibit room at Yerkes Observatory.
Walt Chadick looks at some old computer equipment that will be on display at the Yerkes Observatory.
Walt Chadick, director of programs and external affairs, displays a photo plate of an image that was taken by a telescope.
Yerkes Observatory features rooms of old camera equipment and telescopes.
Yerkes Observatory includes dark rooms where photographs of celestial objects were processed.
A historic building that has been the site for astronomical studies and discoveries will soon be open for public viewing, once again.
Representatives from the Yerkes Observatory, 373 W. Geneva St. in Williams Bay, plan to have the building ready for public tours in May, just in time for the area’s summer tourism season.
Walt Chadick, director of external affairs and programs for Yerkes Observatory, said throughout the observatory’s 120-year-plus history it mostly has been used for research and study, so he is excited about the facility being open for regular tours.
The observatory was constructed in 1897 and used by the University of Chicago for research labs, dark rooms and classrooms to study astronomy and astrophysics.
“They were doing profound scientific work here,” Chadick said. “Now we’re opening up to the public for the first time, and we take a lot of pride in that.”
Officials from the University of Chicago closed the observatory in 2018, then donated the facility and 50 acres of surrounding property to members of the Yerkes Future Foundation in 2020.
The observatory has undergone an extensive renovation project since then to prepare the building for public tours.
The former mailroom is being converted into a welcome center and gift shop, and the restrooms are being renovated to make them more compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“These were century-old bathrooms, and now we got all new bathrooms going in,” Chadick said.
Several of the former classrooms and office spaces will be used for community events, lectures, social gatherings and meeting rooms.
“We can have sci-fi movie nights. We can have someone teaching wine-making classes— all kinds of things for community involvement,” Chadick said. “We want to reinvent ourselves not just in the scientific community but also to the arts community.”
The observatory will feature several exhibit rooms, which will focus on the history of astronomical research and well-known astronomers.
Tours of the observatory also will include a visit to what is being called the Ann Drake Library, which also is in the process of being renovated and will feature research books from the 1890s to the 1960s.
“This was a working research library for astrophysicists,” Chadick said. “Ann Drake has become a benefactor to restoring the library. We’ve begun with lights around the top and bringing down the very renowned astronomy books.”
The library also will include copies of the “Astrophysical Journal,” which was published at the observatory for about 70 years.
“A lot of people don’t realize the ‘Astrophysical Journal’ was published out of here,” Chadick said. “It was the premiere astrophysics and astronomy magazine of its day. It was like the ‘National Geographics’ for astronomy.”
One of the highlights of the tours will be the “great refractor” telescope, which is stationed in a 112-foot tower located on the west end of the observatory. The tower features a large circular elevator which can travel 23 feet up to the telescope.
Both the telescope and tower are in the process of being renovated.
“Not only are you looking at the largest refractor telescope in the world, this is also the largest indoor elevator in the world,” Chadick said.
The telescope is able to take pictures and has captured images of many celestial objects throughout the observatory’s history. Chadick said it takes the telescope about three hours to take a photograph of an image.
“All this stuff works magnificently. It’s a real tribute to the American engineers and lens makers,” Chadick said. “It takes a lot of work before you get to the astronomy part. It takes crafts people. It takes draftsmen, then the astrologers can look through the lens.”
“Hidden spaces” tours will be offered, which will allow people to visit areas of the observatory that have not been viewed by the general public including an astronomy library that was used by researchers and university students.
The library features a selection of old astronomy books and journals.
“These are some of the great books of astronomy,” Chadick said. “This is what they used as their library if they were a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for example.”
A former computer room is being converted into an exhibit that will resemble an information technology room from the 1960s. The exhibit will include old computers, microfilm machines, floppy disks, photographs and computer manuals.
“All of the top-of-the-line computer programs and microfilm machines when they first started transferring things to computers are in this room,” Chadick said. “We will set this up atmospherically to show what a working IT room looked like at the observatory. It encompasses the 1950s to the 2000s.”
The observatory has three plate rooms with about 170,000 plated photographs of images that were taken at the observatory. The photographs include images of the Milky Way, star clusters, eclipses and galaxies.
“You’re not just talking about American history, you’re talking about universal history,” Chadick said. “You’re talking about original pictures of the cosmos.”
Besides the artifacts and exhibits, Chadick said he hopes people will enjoy the interior and exterior architecture of the building, as well.
“You can see how whimsical it is,” Chadick said. “You can see Apollo on the chariot. You can see hearts and Celtic imagery. You can see Charles Yerkes’ face. It’s just very fun out here.”
Chadick said renovating the observatory will be an ongoing process during the next several years.
“We want people to know that this is not close to being finished,” Chadick said. “We’re going to be conducting astronomy and tours, but we got a long way to go.”
Chadick said conducting tours will be a learning experience for the staff, especially during the first year of operation.
“The first summer of tours will be us trying to figure out how to talk about (Yerkes) and what to talk about,” Chadick said. “There’s a lot of stories to tell here and getting them right is important to us, because it’s a piece of history that has been kind of secretive.”
Tours will be conducted by reservation only. Chadick said they plan to conduct four timed tours a day with 25 people each.
“We’re not going to be a place where we start out with 250 people running around the building. It’s going to be very curated,” Chadick said. “I wouldn’t blame people if they just wanted to wander around here, but we have to think of people’s safety. There are priceless artifacts here.”
Chadick is in the process of developing an updated website for the observatory where people can schedule a tour and purchase tickets.
“I’ve been working on that for four months,” Chadick said. “It will be all brand new from scratch starting in May.”
Famed mathematician Albert Einstein, seventh from left, appears in a photo dated May 6, 1921, with staff at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay. The facility has hosted scores of influential and groundbreaking researchers over its 123 years.
An unidentified woman feeds ducks and chickens with Yerkes Observatory looming large in the background.
Yerkes Observatory and the surrounding lakefront campus is shown in an aerial from the early 1900s.
Edwin Brant Frost, a former Yerkes Observatory director who died in 1935, for whom the current Frost Park is named at the corner of Geneva and Congress streets.
E.E. Barnard is shown standing outside Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay in 1920, just a few years before his death. (Contributed photo/Regional News)
Members of the Yerkes Future Foundation find shade under a large maple tree on a portion of the 48-acre John Olmsted-designed grounds of the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay. The 60,000-square-foot facility, home to three domes each with its own telescope, was constructed between 1894 and 1897.
Yerkes Future Foundation committee members Chuck Ebeling, left, and Frank Bonifacic, center, visit with Ed Struble, who has been the director of building and grounds at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wis. for nearly 30 years Wednesday, June 10, 2020. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL
Yerkes Future Foundation committee members Chuck Ebeling, left, Dianna Colman, center, and Frank Bonifacic gather in the ornate lobby of the 1890’s-era Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wis. Wednesday, June 10, 2020.
Yerkes Future Foundation committee members Chuck Ebeling and Dianna Colman look over the library of the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay. The facility is also home to laboratories, a machine shop and a vault that holds thousands of glass-plate images of stars, planets and distant solar systems.
Ed Struble, who has been the director of building and grounds at Yerkes Obervatory for nearly 30 years, controls the dome’s movable roof panels with an electric control switch at the 1890’s-era research facility in Williams Bay, Wis. Wednesday, June 10, 2020. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL
Centered inside a 90-foot diameter dome, the 1890s-era refracting telescope at Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay towers over visitors. The University of Chicago last month transferred ownership of the 123-year-old facility to the Yerkes Future Foundation, a preservation group that plans to restore, refurbish and reopen the historic research center.
Built in the 1890s, the world’s largest refracting telescope is maneuvered by hand by Ed Struble, who has served for nearly 30 years as director of building and grounds at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay. The floor can also be raised and lowered to bring people closer to the eye piece.
One of tens of thousands of glass photograph plates captured by the 40-inch refracting telescope at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay is held by Dianna Colman, chairwoman of the Yerkes Future Foundation.
Ed Struble, who has been the director of building and grounds at Yerkes Obervatory for nearly 30 years, rotates the dome’s movable roof with an electric control panel at the 1890’s-era research facility in Williams Bay, Wis. Wednesday, June 10, 2020. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL
Built in the 1890’s, the telescope at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wis., seen Wednesday, June 10, 2020, is the largest refracting telescope in the world. Electrical components added in the 1960’s are visible on the lower end of the 60-foot-long viewing tube. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL
In operation since 1897, ownership of the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay was transferred last month from the University of Chicago to the Yerkes Future Foundation, which has plans to raise $20 million for its renovation and operations.
Ornate stonework in the entrance of the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wis. greets visitors Wednesday, June 10, 2020. Designed by architect Henry Ives Cobb and built on the shores of Lake Geneva in the 1890’s, the research facility has been referred to as the birthplace of modern astrophysics. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL
The largest of three domes at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wis. shades visitors to the grounds of the research facility Wednesday, June 10, 2020. Recently, the University of Chicago transferred ownership of the 123-year-old building to the Yerkes Future Foundation, a preservation group that plans to restore, refurbish and reopen the historically-significant center. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL
Members of the Yerkes Future Foundation explore the John Olmsted-designed grounds of the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wis. Wednesday, June 10, 2020. Recently, the University of Chicago transferred ownership of the 123-year-old facility to the foundation, a preservation group that plans to restore, refurbish and reopen the research center. JOHN HART, STATE JOURNAL
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Walt Chadick, director of programs and external affairs of Yerkes Observatory, proudly shows off some of the renovations that have been at the observatory, which is set to be open for public tours this summer.
Renovation continues at Yerkes Observatory, as the building is scheduled to be open for public tours this summer.
Former classrooms at Yerkes Observatory will be used for lectures, social gatherings and meeting rooms as part of programs that will be conducted in the historic building.
Yerkes Observatory will feature several exhibit rooms which will include information about the history of astronomy.
The Ann Drake Library will include research books from the 1890s and 1960s, as well as copies of the “Astrophysical Journal,” which was published at the observatory for about 70 years.
One of the highlights of the Yerkes Observatory tour will be the “great refractor” telescope, which is currently being renovated.
Walt Chadick, director of programs and external affairs at Yerkes Observatory, operates an elevator leading up to the “great refractor” telescope.
An astronomy library, which was used by college students, will be part of the “hidden spaces’ tours at Yerkes Observatory.
Old computer equipment will be used to set up an IT exhibit room at Yerkes Observatory.
Walt Chadick looks at some old computer equipment that will be on display at the Yerkes Observatory.
Walt Chadick, director of programs and external affairs, displays a photo plate of an image that was taken by a telescope.
Yerkes Observatory features rooms of old camera equipment and telescopes.
Yerkes Observatory includes dark rooms where photographs of celestial objects were processed.

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