Jerry’s Hat Museum (Classic)

One day, Jerry Roth woke up and realized he had 4,000 hats.

I have no idea. I honestly don't. I just, all of a sudden, I just started going to yard sales

and collected them and hanging them up there at home.

In 2006, Jerry was almost 70 and recently retired.

He left Arizona to settle down in his hometown of Forest, Illinois.

It's a small town, the kind that's quiet and where most people know each other.

But it was a little too quiet for Jerry. He just had more free time than he knew what to do with.

But one day, seemingly out of the blue, he decided to start collecting baseball hats.

One hat picked up here and there quickly became a dozen and then several dozen and then a hundred.

Once the people of Forest got word that Jerry had picked up a new hobby, they started dropping off hats

they were trying to get rid of.

And it got a little lot of control.

The hats were crowding his garage. He needed more space.

Plus, he wanted to let visitors peruse his collection without having to open up his home.

Lucky for him, there was an abandoned church nearby that was looking for a new owner.

I'm Gabby Gladney and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange and credible and wondrous places.

Today, I take a tour of Jerry's Hat Museum, guided by Jerry himself.

He walks me through how his retirement pastime snowballed into an eclectic collection that holds a special place in the heart of his hometown.

More after this.

I live in Chicago, which is about a two and a half hour drive from Forest Illinois.

I don't own a car because I don't love driving.

But lucky for me, my boyfriend Kevin was also very interested in seeing the holy hat church for himself.

On the outside, Jerry's Hat Museum, which is the official name, looks like any church you would find in a small town.

A whitewood paneled exterior with tall seapoles painted green to match the big double doors.

If it wasn't for the plain white sign on the lawn announcing the Hat Museum, I would have thought I was arriving for Bible study.

You have a lot of tours today or?

You're the only ones today.

Wow.

When you walk in, it's hard not to be awestruck.

Immediately, you're confronted with thousands and thousands of hats that line the walls from floor to ceiling.

Hats from sports teams, hats with political slogans, hats from marathons, from family reunions, from practically every country you could think of.

Honestly, this may have been the moment I realized that people will put anything on a hat.

Because there's no furniture, no pews or partitions, the church feels wide open, making its hat filled walls even more dramatic.

It was a church of God, and I tried to kind of preserve this part.

It's all original stuff back in the 1905, this building's built.

The only thing that sounded original is a piano in the organ that came from the Catholic Church that closed.

There's a tall wooden cross that hangs in front of gorgeous stained glass windows at the back of the space.

The light shining through the stained glass makes it seem like Jerry's collection had been ordained.

But when Jerry found the building, it was closer to a dump than a sanctuary.

I had to redo everything. New iron, new roof, new drywall.

That was down to the studs in there, and a new flooring.

Everything's just about new in here.

New furnace replaced the glass window, sixth foundation.

It was a mess.

The guy that owned this, he collected stuff too.

He wanted to get rid of it, nobody wanted it, but it was so bad of shape.

For this building.

And a lot.

With the help of some family members and local volunteers, he was able to transform the church in just six months.

Then they got to work transferring Jerry's huge collection.

Each hat was hung up by hand, stapled into the wall.

And I'm on my 15th street.

You're the office supplies favorite person, the office play store.

He's hardware and home depots and yards.

Mm-hmm.

Low.

Forever having to be.

There are, of course, millions of hats in the world and hundreds of different styles.

Because of that, even a collector like Jerry has to have limits to avoid being overwhelmed.

I don't hang hats that don't have a logo on it.

It's got to be a baseball style hat.

Okay.

I do have a few odd balls.

The odd balls are the crowd favorites.

And they technically break the rules.

I saw a cowboy hat and the few church lady hats that were sort of an homage to the building's original purpose.

The most popular novelty hat is one with a pair of hains underwear attached to a brim and blazing with the words butt head.

We started as a collection of 4,000, has since grown two.

At the time of my visit, exactly 16,264.

That's enough hats to cover about two and a half miles of road if you place them all brim to brim.

That's almost the entire length of the Hollywood walk of fame.

And Jerry's not out garage sale hunting anymore.

At this point, do you have to search that hard or people just come by and drop me?

I put searching.

Okay. They just find you now.

Yeah, and because I'm getting told.

He considered stopping, but the goal posts have continued to move as the hats strengthen their hold on Jerry.

I told everybody when I get to 15,000 hats, I'm going to stop.

This guy was helping me.

So this should be about 15,000.

So I was just keep going.

One thing about Jerry's hat museum is that it's kind of a misnomer.

Don't get me wrong.

Obviously, there are plenty of hats.

But it's also sort of a misdirect as what lies in the church's basement goes well beyond baseball caps.

I'll show you when I get down there what I started with.

I'll just stare.

There's also thousands and thousands of pens and pencils.

Jerry shows me a plank of wood.

That's a little more than a foot long.

I found this hanging in an antique store.

The wood has stringed down the middle, stapled into tiny loops.

It was a pen holder that someone had tired of.

And I just had a hanging down here.

And a year later, this room was about full.

Similar to how he got started with hat collecting,

there wasn't really a rhyme or reason for the beginnings of his pen collection.

The plank presented space, an opportunity to be filled.

And over time, he did.

Although he had a lot of help from one particular person.

A friend of mine called me and said,

I see your collecting pens.

I said, well, not really, but I'll think so.

He said, well, I'm going to Iowa.

This guy out there has been collecting all his life.

I don't know if he's selling, giving him away or what?

My week later, I got to call you home.

He backed his SUV up.

Our stay was at least 7,000 pounds.

Just this middle row all the way around

to about the doorway, past the doorway.

There was all his stuff.

Wow.

So, and he just found out they just started bringing me pens by the thousands.

At the time of my visit,

there were exactly 32,570 pens and pencils on display,

all on a plank board just like the one you found in the antique store.

And there's more smaller collections that are just beginning.

I didn't collect matchbook covers.

Now I've got a lot of two or three.

Okay.

That's why I've got a bunch of mobile openers,

a can of openers and stuff.

I didn't collect yard sticks.

Now I've got a lot of them.

Another main staple of the basement collection

is old memorabilia from the town.

When his hat and pen collection continued to grow and grow,

his neighbors and friends began to trust him with more things

that they couldn't justify keeping around their own houses.

The other people here about it

been calling me, do you want this?

We used to have our school used to be F.S.W.

for a strong wing that could now consolidate it.

So I got a lot of old uniforms and stuff.

There's old equipment from when Forrest was a farming town.

There's yearbooks from every decade since the 1920s.

There's each iteration of the old high school sports team uniforms

and replica of the school that has since been closed.

It's a lot of stuff.

I got records that go back to 1800s.

And picture books from the schools and all that stuff,

just old stuff.

I got the Forrest 1933 phone book.

When asked if there's anything he won't collect,

the answer is simple.

Probably not.

I was shocked to learn that.

Despite the last decade of his life being spent collecting them

and talking about them,

Jerry doesn't actually like to wear hats all that much.

When's the last time you think you were at it?

The last time I changed it.

When I had pain, I used to wear a wand.

Once I wore a wand,

if it's on my own and the wind,

it's windy on my foot.

I had a wand sitting on my tractor

and if I was dormant, I don't wear a hat at all.

I see.

I don't usually carry a pen either.

I always ask her,

but if I borrow a pen,

they look at me like I'm crazy.

That really confused me

because I didn't understand what about hats and pens

and collecting interested him.

But I think the answer,

and Jerry's outlook on his hobby,

is simple.

For Jerry,

the museum upkeep and collecting keeps him busy,

gives him something to do

without becoming a board retiree.

He's also providing a service to the town,

giving neighbors a way to memorialize items

they no longer had use for,

but couldn't bear to just throw away.

So you're kind of like,

the record keeper of what's going on here.

Yeah, there were a lot of people thank me,

so I'm glad you're here.

You can save all this stuff.

There's no plans to stop or even slow down.

If one day soon he does run out of space in the church,

he also owns the small shed next to it.

And when he's not around to take care of his collection anymore,

well, he has a plan for that too.

What happens when you're no longer here

and what to do with your stuff?

It is real to the historical society.

Okay.

That definitely makes sense.

If you're interested in visiting Jerry's Hat Museum for yourself,

take a trip to Forrest, Illinois.

It's about a two-hour drive outside of Chicago.

And make sure you bring a hat as an offering.

This episode was produced by...

Gabby Gladney.

Our podcast is a co-production of Atlas Obscura and Stitcher Studios.

The production team includes...

Camille Stanley.

Chris Nakka.

Doug Baldinger.

Johanna Mayer.

Manolo Morales.

Amanda McGowan.

Baudelaire.

Our technical director is...

Casey Holford.

And this episode was Sound Designed by...

Loose Fleming.

Our theme and end credit music is by Sam Tindle.

I'm Don't Thoris, wishing you all the wonder in the world.

I will see you soon.

Thank you.