A Step Back in Time at the La Porte County Historical Society Museum

During our time camping near Indiana Dunes National Park, we decided to check out a local museum just a short drive away: the La Porte County Historical Society Museum. This spot offers an eclectic mix of local history, quirky collections, and fascinating exhibits. Whether you’re into antique cars, local folklore, or true crime (more on that in a second!), there’s something for everyone to explore. We enjoyed it so much, we’re splitting our experience into two posts: one about the museum’s overall experience, and another dedicated to the spine-chilling tale of serial killer Belle Gunness. Stay tuned for both!

About the La Porte County Historical Society Museum

2405 Indiana Ave., La Porte, IN 46350
https://laportecountyhistory.org/

Hours: Tues-Sat 10am-4:30, guided tours available at 2:00 on Saturdays
Cost: Adults $5; Seniors $4; Children under 18 Free
It’s not on the website, but we visited on a Tuesday and they told us it was Two for Tuesday, so we only had to pay for one of us.

The La Porte County Historical Society has been around since 1906, but moved into their current building in 2006. The building was once owned by Dr. Peter Kesling, who had built it to display his car collection. He sold the building to the Historical Society, and built them an addition on the back for more exhibit space. The museum still displays his car collection, as well as the “period rooms,” lots of artifacts from local history, the W.A. Jones Weapons Collection, and more.

Let’s Take a Tour of the La Porte County Historical Society Museum

Main Floor Exhibits

The first area of the museum felt more like an antique store than a museum, with random items for the past in shop display cabinets. There were sections on toys from different decades, collections of glassware, coin collections, old cameras, and more. It definitely felt more old-school, since modern museums focus more on storytelling instead of just displaying collections.

The wall between the original building and addition that houses the period rooms is also used to display windows salvaged from the Lonn Building in La Porte. Each window is decorated like a different time period to represent the different businesses that were located in the building.

On the main floor we also got our first taste of the Kesling auto collection, before heading back to the period rooms. These exhibits were more cohesive- each room was set up as  a snapshot in time. I have to warn you, though- this is a very mannequin-heavy museum.

Even within the period rooms, there are some random collections. The photo below is just a small part of a collection of “invalid cups” that were donated by a local resident. The spouts of the cups were used like a straw.

Second Floor Exhibits

After the main floor, we headed upstairs to see the rest of the Kesling auto collection. There is a really nice variety here, and even some more modern cars like the Delorian and a 1989 Dakota.

Basement Exhibits

After finishing upstairs, we headed down to the basement. There were exhibits here on local history- like high shool sports, local industry & employers, scouts, etc. and more random collection type exhibits. The basement is also where you’ll find the Belle Gunness exhibit, but that deserves its own post.

A large part of the basement is taken up by the W.A. Jones weapons collection. Jones was a wealthy Chicago businessman who collected weapons on his travels across the world. He retired in the area and left his collection to the city when he died in 1921. There are over 850 different guns on display here, and there is a wide variety of types and styles.

We got to pretty much the end of the basement exhibits, and still hadn’t seen the new temporary exhibit on Lost Cemeteries of LaPorte County that opened that day- which was another reason I had really wanted to come here. Josh finally spotted it- behind a TV that was set up for a presentation later that night. We were able to peek around some, and apparently we weren’t missing much because it was just print outs tacked up on a board.

This is definitely a weird museum in a lot of ways, but it’s definitely worth the visit. It’s quite large, and overwhelming, but really feels like you’ve stepped back in time since the museum design is so old-school.