Heading into its final autumn, Schaumburg’s 51-year-old Robert O. Atcher Municipal Center next weekend will be home to one more Septemberfest celebration, which has drawn generations of residents to the village hall grounds.
The aging building’s planned demolition is not until next year, so employees will continue to work there and residents can still pay their water bills in person. But for many, the community’s annual Labor Day weekend festival has been the most consistent reason to visit the village’s headquarters, named for Schaumburg’s visionary second mayor.
The Robert O. Atcher Municipal Center has been home to Schaumburg’s annual Septemberfest for the past 44 years. Though there are no plans to relocate the Labor Day weekend celebration, the building is expected to be gone by September 2025 to make way for a two-story replacement.
Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
Though Mayor Tom Dailly now has an office in the building, his memories of visiting the Septemberfest carnival during his early years in the village suggest that’s true for many residents.
“Perfect example, my own kids,” he said. “I started bringing them in the early ’90s. I brought them when they were young.”
Septemberfest originally was held at Campanelli Park when the tradition began in 1971. Its popularity encouraged a series of moves to larger sites, with the municipal grounds beginning to share hosting duties in 1980 with the fields behind Robert O. Atcher Pool at Springinsguth Road and Dartmouth Lane.
A prior Septemberfest demonstrates how Schaumburg’s Robert O. Atcher Municipal Center traditionally has divided the festival grounds between the arts and crafts show on the north side and the carnival in the parking lot to the south.
Daily Herald File Photo
Patrons visit a past Septemberfest arts and crafts fair on the grounds of the Robert O. Atcher Municipal Center in Schaumburg.
Daily Herald File Photo
In 1982, Terada Park across Schaumburg Road from the current police and fire station campus took over the day that had been previously held at Atcher Park, according to the research of Schaumburg Township District Library Local History Librarian Jane Rozek.
And since 1983, all three days of the festival have been held on the municipal grounds. The event was canceled only once, in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and shortened during the recovery period the following year.
An advantage of the municipal grounds has been the availability of enough space for the carnival, vendors, arts and crafts show and live entertainment, Dailly said.
But it’s barely enough.
“It allows the village to showcase the grounds,” he said. “It would be nice to have a larger space. The question is, where would you go?”
Schaumburg’s village hall was dedicated in 1973. The aging building is expected to be demolished next year to make way for a two-story successor.
Eric Peterson/epeterson@dailyherald.com, 2017
Next spring or summer, village hall employees will move to a newly acquired temporary site at 1000 Woodfield Road so that the Atcher Municipal Center, dedicated in 1973, can be torn down. Construction of a two-story replacement on the same site is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.
The village has closed on its $5.45 million purchase of the 204,000-square-foot office building on Woodfield Road that will first be the temporary village hall before becoming the new police station.
It’s unclear how far village hall construction will have progressed by Labor Day weekend 2025, but so far there’s been no indication of a need to relocate Septemberfest even if its site layout might have to be adjusted.
The interior space of the Al Larson Prairie Center for the Arts next door has long been relied on for administrative functions during the festival.
Trustees have commissioned designs for the new village buildings from Williams Architects of Itasca. The plans cost $3.7 million for the police station and $1.8 million for village hall.
Studies completed last year indicated both current facilities are undersized and inadequate for the needs of present and future village operations, officials said.
Construction management services for the two projects have been contracted with Camosy Construction of Zion for $157,104 altogether.
Since 1980, the grounds of Schaumburg’s Robert O. Atcher Municipal Center have hosted the annual Septemberfest celebration that began in 1971 at Campanelli Park.
Daily Herald File Photo
Septemberfest carnival rides are set up in the parking lot of Schaumburg’s Robert O. Atcher Municipal Center. The annual Labor Day weekend event is expected to return to the grounds in 2025, but the 51-year-old village hall is expected to be demolished by then to make way for a replacement.
Daily Herald File Photo