The Cross River Heritage Center, known locally as The Heart of Schroeder, was originally built in 1929 as the Stickney Inn, one of the first roadhouses along the new North Shore Highway 1, the first road that connected to Duluth, Minnesota to Fort William-Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) in Ontario, Canada.

It is the only Tudor architectural style building in Cook County and through the years, it has been home to a boarding house, restaurant, meat market, gas station, post office, and the Cross River General Store. Since 2002, it has operated as the Cross River Heritage Center, the museum home of the Schroeder Area Historical Society.