Swedish immigrant August Ekdahl hand-built this small frame house in Western Springs in 1887, and for more than 100 years it contributed to the village's cultural and economic heritage while serving in turn as a residence, a cobbler shop, a post office, a jail, a bicycle shop, an ice cream parlor, a pizza restaurant, and now a museum. Ekdahl lived and ran his cobbler business here, one of over a million Swedes arriving between 1840 and 1920 and one of millions of Europeans and Asians emigrating to the United States. Western Springs likely attracted him because industrialization and machinery were changing the shoe industry, a suburb offered him independence as a craftsman, and the community already had a fairly well established Swedish population. Letters home to Sweden suggest that he achieved the American Dream here; in 1887 he wrote that he had built a little house on his lot, rented part of it to the post office, worked in the corner with his shoes, and shared the building with Miss Watson, the woman who ran the post office. Nancy Watson, a post office employee, reflected a broader trend in women's employment by the postal service, and by 1900 women made up 10% of all postmasters despite women's limited representation in the workforce at the time. The house was a logical post office site because it stood on the rail line, allowing mail to be delivered easily for Watson to sort into cubbies while villagers came in to collect their mail, look at shoes, and discuss issues of the day. In 2008, when the house was in danger of demolition, the Western Springs Historical Society led an effort to save it and move it to its present location, where it serves as a testament to village history and a means of exploring immigration, community, women's roles, and the pursuit of the American Dream.