T he City We Built 1863-2013

Transcription

Evanston
T he City We Built 1863-2013
THE RoundTable MAGAZINE
The EVANSTON We Built • 1
Happy 150
Birthday Evanston!
th
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Evanston
…the City we Built
A PUBLICATION of the EVANSTON ROUNDTABLE newspaper
may 2013
what’s inside
3 City of Homes:
Architecture of Yesteryear
5 Residential Development:
From Homes to High-rises
13 How Our City Rolled:
Evanston’s Rail Journeys
15 Spools and Sticks:
Tinker Toys
18 Once Upon a Pier or Two:
Commerce on the Lake
20 For Land’s Sake:
Northwestern’s Lakefill Expansion
25 Downtown Evanston 1920–1950s:
A Sophisticated Shopping Experience
28 Countdown to Downtown:
Research, Development and TIFs
32 Building a Neighborhood:
The Historic Polish West Side
Editors
Mary Helt Gavin,
Larry Gavin
Victoria Scott
Charles Wilkinson
Project Managers
Mary DeJong
Mary Mumbrue
Advertising Sales
Dorothy Laudati
Fred Schneider
Writers
Anne Bodine, Judy Chiss
Mary Helt Gavin, Larry Gavin
Toni Gilpin, Les Jacobson
Kathleen Ratteree
Victoria Scott, Matt Simonette,
Graphic Design/Production
Kathy Ade
Photography
RoundTable Staff,
Except where noted
Published by: Evanston RoundTable, LLC
1124 Florence Ave. Suite 3, Evanston, IL 60202
Ph 847-864-7741, Fax 847-864-7749
www.evanstonroundtable.com
[email protected]
[email protected]
34 A Giant of Evanston Industry:
Clayton Mark and Company
35 Pumps, Drains and Ditches:
Evanston’s Pursuit of Dry Land and Pure Water
40 The Art of Building a School:
Treasures of Nichols Middle School
42 Sweet Bygones:
Orange Crush, Peacock’s Ice Cream, the Sundae
Writers’ Letter
From a Town to a Village to a City
That is not an Erector Set creation on the
cover with an ad for Tinker Toys, even though it
looks like it could be a child’s toy. It is one of the
steam-powered engines that dug the North Shore
Channel in the early part of the 20th century. This
is the RoundTable’s second magazine celebrating
Evanston’s sesquicentennial. The cover shows that
Evanston was built with intellectual as well as physical
determination.
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2 • The EVANSTON We Built
Evanston is built of homes, ideas, neighborhoods
and schools. Zoning, architecture, and, regrettably,
segregation all played a part in the development of
Evanston as we find it today.
Transportation, beginning with Henry Butler’s Livery
and stretching to today’s commuter-rail stations,
parking garages and bike racks, kept Evanstonians
on the move to jobs, shopping and entertainment.
Until the mid-1950s, their destination was usually
downtown Evanston.
While it took decades for the commercial side of
Evanston to recover from the exodus of shoppers
when the Old Orchard shopping mall opened,
downtown Evanston and the community’s local
shopping districts are making a comeback. Evanston
is becoming the dining capital of the North Shore.
Ideas, too, made Evanston grow: In the late 1890s
and beyond, Evanston’s excellent water supply and
sewer system made the City one of the healthiest
places to live. The Technology Innovation Center,
born in the now-defunct Research Park, has fledged
hundreds of businesses in the past two decades.
Whimsy taken seriously brought us Tinker Toys and
the Muntz Jet. Together with Peacock’s Ice Cream,
Orange Crush and Hires Root Beer, they are all part
of Evanston’s sweet past.
“The Evanston We Built” is only a part of this
community’s rich history, and the RoundTable plans
to cover additional topics in the next magazine.
The RoundTable would like to acknowledge the
following people who shared their time and their
knowledge and photographs of Evanston history:
Richard Lanyon, retired engineer of the Metropolitan
Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago and
author of “Building the Canal to Save Chicago,”
Northwestern University archivists Kevin B. Leonard
and Janet C. Olson, J.J. Sedelmaier, and Steve and
Genie Lemieux-Jordan of Evanston Photographic
Studios.
A City
Of Homes
Mansions of Yesteryear
by mary helt gavin
Incorporated in 1863, Evanston
evolved as both a university
community and a city-suburb.
Its reputation as the city of homes
“developed over the years as
block after block of its tree-shaded
streets became ornamented
with suburban villas designed
by prominent local builders and
well known architects,” says
Barbara Buchbinder-Green in
“Evanstoniana.” Streets and
avenues, she continues,“ are
punctuated by a pleasing variety
of architectural styles that reflect
Evanston’s building history.”
Queen Anne, Shingle style,
Vernacular, English Cotswold,
Italianate, Tudor Revival, NeoClassical, several Gothic and
several French styles, Arts and
Crafts, Prairie, Art Deco, Modern
and Contemporary homes,
suburban apartment houses, and
thousands of other dwellings
enliven a walk down almost any
Evanston street.
To preserve the historic character
of some of the City’s distinctive
neighborhoods, preservationists
succeeded in nominating several
hundred structures to the National
Register of Historic Places. There
are local landmarks and five federal
historic districts – the Lakeshore,
Ridge, WCTU, Northeast Evanston
and Oakton, as well as the thematic
apartment historic district – with
significant clusters of homes and
buildings.
No single architectural style
dominates the Lakeshore Historic
District. According to the
nomination form for the National
Register of Historic Places, the
District showcases Italianate
homes, “balloon-frame cottages
and villas with Gothic Revival or
Italianate detailing,” as well as
architectural hybrids (resulting
from renovation and adaptation).
This house, at 1454 Asbury Ave., was
built in 1881-82 by Asa Lyon for Nelson
Record. Mr. Lyon was Evanston’s first
resident architect.
Barbara Buchbinder-Green writes that
this house at 1433 Hinman Ave., one
of the last homes built by John Mills
Van Osdel, is “one of the most striking
Queen Anne houses in Evanston,” with
pressed brick and “elaborate parget
work.”
The gracious mansions that remain in Evanston today are for the most part
found in the Ridge, Lakeshore or Northeast Evanston historic districts. The Ridge
Historic district showcases some of Evanston’s oldest homes – those that were
built on the west ridge (as the west side of Ridge Avenue came to be called).
Many of these large estates covered entire blocks. Today, homes of varying
architectural styles sit on relatively large, deep lots. It is not unusual to find a
Queen Anne style house next door to an Italianate house next door to a Prairie style
house because of the way in which blocks developed.
Style on a Smaller Scale
Bungalows
Doll Houses
With a commission from Charles
Addison Wightman, Robert Spencer
Jr. designed three homes on Pioneer
Road at Lincoln Street (and north).
Although the center one was originally
called a “doll house” because it was
used as a model for one of Elizabeth
Gordon’s “Cranford” doll houses, the
three are now called the “doll houses,”
perhaps alluding to the small scale of
these architectural gems.
Tudor revivals, Craftsman homes,
Chicago-style bungalows and Dutch
colonials were built between 1900 and
1949, filling the blocks between Ridge
and Asbury avenues from Howard
Street to Oakton Street with modest
one- and two-story single-family
homes and the occasional two-flat
building. In 2004, City Council created
the Oakton Historic District, also called
the “bungalow district.” Bounded
by Howard and Oakton streets and
Asbury and Ridge avenues, the 556acre historic district contains 282
buildings listed as “contributing”
and 54 listed as “non-contributing.”
Sears Homes
Sears Roebuck kit home
in Northwest Evanston
Long before the Internet, Sears
Roebuck & Co. was the last word
in wish fulfillment. For 32 years,
between 1908 and 1940, the Sears
catalog could deliver the ultimate in
happiness – not just clothing and toys
and appliances, but homes. Sears kit
homes – complete with 10,000-30,000
pieces and a 75-page manual – arrived
by boxcar, all building materials
included.
Evanston still boasts more than two
dozen Sears homes, a testament to
Who Lived Here?
Many homes in Evanston are
notable for their architectural styles,
designers or builders. But many are
known because of the company they
kept: the original occupants.
2319 Lincoln
Dwight Perkins and his wife, Lucy
Fitch Perkins, lived in this house,
which Mr. Perkins designed and
Jens Jensen landscaped in 1904.
Mr. Perkins designed many other
buildings in Evanston, including
Oakton School.
2236 Orrington
Catharine McCulloch lived with
her husband, Frank, in this Queen
Anne-style house built in 1895.
Ms. McCulloch was a leader in the
suffrage movement, a lawyer and the
first woman in the United States to
be elected to a judicial office.
1918 Asbury
1228 Forest
Architect Franklin Burnham built
this Shingle-style house in 1896-97.
This home features classical details,
such as the columns and Palladian
windows. It was the home of Charles
Gates Dawes from 1904 to 1909.
The house at 1918 Asbury Ave.,
first the home of Dr. Isabella Garnett
Butler and Dr. Arthur Daniel Butler,
became the Evanston Sanitarium.
The doctors provided care to most
African Americans in Evanston and
along the North Shore, because,
with some few exceptions, neither
Evanston Hospital nor St. Francis
Hospital would admit African
American patients. Later Dr. Isabella
Butler founded Community Hospital.
The Rodessa in a Sears ad c. 1948
their enduring quality and appeal.
In a 2007 article for www.arts-crafts.
com., Rosemary Thornton quotes
Sears as saying that “a man of average
abilities could assemble a kit home
in about 90 days.” Apparently, nearly
half those who purchased the kits
took Sears up on the promise. These
do-it-yourselfers saved 30 percent,
relying on the manual and blueprints
that listed each marked and numbered
framing piece and its precise placement, including the correct positioning
for some 750 pounds of nails.
Lumber, lath, millwork – even
“medicine cases” and hardware –
came with the kit. Materials were
the finest available: solid tongueand-groove maple for kitchen and
bathroom floors, top-grade yellow
pine for framing and cypress for
exterior components. An outhouse
was optional for certain cottage
models.
Through the years, Sears sold some
70,000 kit homes in more than 370
designs, from bungalows to Tudor
Revivals. The 616-square-foot, onebedroom home at 2225 Noyes St.
came from the 1917 catalog. Sears
advertised The Rodessa model, with
its front porch, kitchen, living-dining
room and first-floor bedroom, as
“a most attractive little home” at an
attractive price (probably between
$998 and $1,189).
On a nearby street is an example
of an early-1920s Sears bungalow
called The Argyle. Its “easy living
floor plan,” boasts the catalogue, has
two bedrooms and a 30-foot-long
living-dining room with brick fireplace,
built-in bookcase and exposed-beam
ceiling.
Some influencing factors …
residential
development
in evanston
by larry gavin
the early years
Shortly after Northwestern
University received its charter from the
State of Illinois in 1851, it purchased
353 acres of farmland from John H.
Foster for a lakeside campus and
surrounding town. That tract, plus
an additional 250 acres, comprised
the property in the original Plat of
Evanston that was recorded in 1854.
The plat was bounded on the
east by the lake and on the north by
Foster Street. The west and south
boundaries, not straight lines, were
bounded by Maple and Ashland
avenues on the west and by Church
and Dempster Streets on the south.
The plat divided the area into 73
lots, provided for public parks and
wide streets and was drawn to appeal
to people who wanted to live in an
education center. At the time, the
platted and surrounding area was a
rural community with fewer than 500
scattered settlers.
“No sooner was the plat recorded
than those attracted by the University
began building houses, especially on
the two ridges where it remained dry
enough all year round,” said Margery
Blair Perkins in “Evanstoniana” (1984).
“Many of the houses of the University
and seminary professors clustered
on streets nearest the lake – Judson,
Hinman and Chicago avenues – where
lots cost only five to ten dollars a front
foot. … Wealthier families built their
mansions on the ridge. … In a day
when tuberculosis was so common,
they feared the harmful effects of the
lake air.”
The University “was the magnet,”
said Robert Dickinson Shepard
and Harvey B. Hurd in “History
of Northwestern University and
Evanston” (1906). “The idea of the
suburban residence had not yet
emerged. The families who came
were chiefly those that were attracted
by the idea of residence in a college
town.”
Another early draw was a ban on the
sale of liquor within four miles of the
college campus, which was included
in the University’s charter in 1855.
“The very announcement of this fact
was the magnet to draw a better class
of people who were total abstainers
and who desired for their children the
surroundings of sobriety,” said Francis
E. Willard in a “Classic Town.”
s
Within the next 15 years, a number
of other things took place that shaped
Evanston’s expansion. A train station
Plan of Evanston courtesy of Northwestern
University archives
was built at Davis Street in 1854.
Evanston was incorporated as a town
in 1863. In 1868, both North Evanston
and South Evanston were platted, and
train stations were built at Central
Street and Main Street.
The population grew from less than
500 in 1854 to 3,060 in 1870.
post-chicago fire
Up to the time of the Great Chicago
Fire in 1871, “the University was the
dominant influence which brought
people to Evanston,” said Frank M.
Elliott, an Evanston resident with 25
years in the real estate business, in
a chapter he authored in 1906 in a
“History of Northwestern University
and Evanston.”
The fire left 100,000 people homeless, some of whom came to Evanston
for temporary shelter. Many decided
to make Evanston their new home, in
part because of new housing codes
established in Chicago and in part
because of Evanston’s ambiance.
After the fire, Chicago required
homes to be built with bricks or other
fireproof materials, which made them
more expensive to build than wooden
houses. People who lacked the means
to build brick houses moved to areas
outside of Chicago, with “Evanston
receiving a large influx of people,”
where wooden houses were still
allowed, said Mr. Elliott. In addition,
he said, “They were attracted
by its accessibility, its delightful
surroundings, and the high character
of the people who already resided in
the village.”
“With the exodus to Evanston, … a
new life dawned upon our heretofore
almost idyllically peaceful village,”
said Elizabeth M. Boynton Harbert,
Ph.D., in a chapter included in “History
of Evanston and Northwestern
University” (1906). “New interests
were developed, new methods
introduced, new social circles formed
and the village began to assume some
of the desirable, as well as some of the
undesirable, aspects of a city.”
In 1872, Evanston changed
its status from being a “town,”
under Illinois law to that of
a “village” which enabled
Evanston to expand beyond
the one-square-mile limit
applicable to towns. This
enabled Evanston to annex
surrounding areas.
In that same year, Evanston
laid out plans to construct a
water treatment plant on Lincoln
Street on the lake. The plant
was completed three years later,
providing a better source of
drinking water, reducing the
risk of typhoid fever and
increasing water pressure to
fight fires.
The fresh water supply
and a sewage system drew
people to Evanston. These
were also factors that
influenced people to vote
in favor of being annexed
to Evanston, the two largest
annexations being North
Evanston in 1874 and South
Evanston in 1892. Evanston
desired the annexations
to increase its property tax base,
already feeling the pinch due
to the University’s property tax
exemption.
Another factor that made
Evanston an attractive place to
live, Mr. Elliott said in 1906, was,
“Evanston has two railroads and
two electric street car lines.
… When these were started
the increase of population
in our city was noticeable.
... When better equipment
for transportation service
and when passengers can
be landed in the heart of
Chicago, many people will
come here to live.”
Evanston was known as the “City of Homes,”
with hundreds, if not thousands, of beautiful
homes. This home, in the 1700 block of
Hinman Avenue, was built in 1894.
These rowhouses at 1401-07 Elmwood Ave.,
built in 1890, are the earliest form of multifamily housing included in the thematic
historic district, Suburban Apartment
Buildings in Evanston. The nomination form
says they were considered “very special”
and designed by Evanston’s most fashionable
architect at the time, Stephen A. Jennings.
Between 1870 and 1900,
the population grew from
3,060 to 19,259.
Toward the end of the
1800s, Evanston was called
The Boylston, built in 1899 at 614 Clark St.,
is the earliest apartment building in Evanston
that is still standing.
the “City of Homes” because of the
many beautiful and architecturally
distinguished homes. “The fame of
Evanston, as a city of beautiful homes,
became so wide-spread that fathers
and mothers who desired to secure for
their children educational advantages
and the environment of a moral and
temperate community, came in such
numbers that some future historian
must devote volumes to the record
of their manifold services,” said Dr.
Harbert.
apartments appear,
with mixed reaction
Evanston’s first apartment building,
the “Essex,” was built in 1884 at 520
Davis St., close to the business district.
In 1899-1900, two other apartment
buildings were built, the “Hereford”
at 1637 Chicago Ave., and the
“Boyleston” at 614 Clark St.
In 1900, 14 permits for apartment
buildings were issued. In 1901, the
number jumped to 109. In that year,
the proposed construction of a 21-unit
apartment building, the “Melwood,”
one block from Lake Michigan in an
area of beautiful homes, caused an
uproar. City Council addressed this
issue in 1901, not by prohibiting
apartment buildings altogether, but by
passing an ordinance that contained
strict fire-prevention standards.
“During the past five years there has
been an evolution in building, and the
first flat and apartment buildings have
made their appearance in our midst,”
said Mr. Elliott in 1906. “This is in line
with the progressing movement of
real estate as they bring a far greater
income than can be obtained by other
improvements. Property that is losing
attractiveness for residence purposes,
and which cannot by nature of the
case, become business property,
can thus be utilized for profitable
investment.”
The development of apartment
buildings slowed after restrictions
were imposed in 1901, but there
was a surge again in 1912.
The Melwood, with 27-apartment
units, was built in 1901 at the corner of
Michigan Avenue and Hamilton Street, a
block from Lake Michigan. At the time,
that area was built up with a number
of beautiful homes, according to the
nomination form for the apartment historic
district. When the Melwood was proposed,
it caused an uproar.
In 1915, the City
adopted another
ordinance, which limited
the height of apartment
buildings to five stories,
imposed set-backs from
lot lines and required
minimum room sizes.
A year later, the City
passed an ordinance that
allowed property owners
to preclude apartment
buildings on their block
by a two-thirds vote. The
stated purpose of this
ordinance was to uphold Evanston’s
reputation
as “a city of homes.”
Eighteen blocks quickly
precluded apartment
buildings; more followed.
While some people
felt apartment buildings
hurt the character of
Evanston, others felt the
restrictions imposed were
too stringent and were
blocking progress. The
pendulum, though, was
shifting toward growth.
Between 1894 and
1920, 1,429 apartment
units were built. In roughly the same
period, between 1900 and 1920,
the population grew from 19,259 to
37,234.
the plan of evanston
and zoning
In 1917, the City adopted the
“Plan of Evanston” prepared
by D.H. Burnham Jr., Dwight H.
Perkins, Thomas E. Tallmadge
and Hubert Burnham. The plan
outlined a vision for the provision
The Evanston Flats, built in 1901 at
the southwest corner of Lee Street and
Hinman Avenue, is Evanston’s earliest
courtyard building. A distinguishing
feature of a suburban apartment building
“is a courtyard with plentiful light and
ventilation and many homelike amenties,”
says the nomination form for the apartment
historic district.
s
In 1919 Thomas E. Tallmadge gave
a less flattering perspective: “Slowly
at first, and then with the rapidity of
contagion these buildings sprang up,
most of them designed by contractors
and built by promoters from the
nearby metropolis, perfectly willing
to exploit and defile the peaceful
and beautiful village whose greatest
treasures were its sunlit lawns, its
arching elms and its hospitable
homes.”
of parks and playground space, street
circulation, and the proper location
and development of business centers.
The plan also stated, “The
establishment of districts from
which factories, stores or apartment
buildings, or any of these will be
excluded by law is one of the most
difficult problems that any rapidly
growing city has to solve. We say,
without exaggeration, that we believe
it vital to the well-being of Evanston
that such a system of zoning and
building regulations, at once effective
and equitable, be formulated and
enforced.”
Some believe this was the most
important recommendation of the
Plan of Evanston. It was one that was
quickly acted on. By 1921, the City
adopted a zoning ordinance, the first
city in Illinois to do so. The zoning
ordinance created zoning districts and
limited the districts to certain types
of buildings and uses. The zoning
ordinance protected many areas where
single-family residences were located
– by prohibiting apartment buildings
from being built there – but it freed
up large areas for apartment houses,
commercial and industrial uses.
If land in Evanston was developed
as permitted under this Zoning
Ordinance, it would have permitted
up to 400,000 people, said the League
of Women Voters in their 1940 edition
of “This is Evanston.” Looking back
in 1970, the City put the number at
250,000.
the boom in the 1920s
Shortly after World War I, between
1920 and 1930, Evanston’s population
boomed, increasing from 37,234 to
62,822, or by 69 percent. This was in
line with Oak Park’s population growth
of 61 percent in the same period,
but it substantially exceeded the 25
percent growth rate of Chicago, which
had reached a population of
2.7 million by 1920.
Most of the influx in Evanston was
accomodated by an increase in the
number of apartment units. During the
1920s, there was an increase of 509
two-flats and 5,820 apartment units, a
total of 6,329 rental units. By contrast,
single family residences increased by
2,584. There was also a shift toward
building larger apartment buildings
than in the past. For example, 26
apartment buildings contained more
than 40 units. By 1931, 38 percent
of Evanston’s families lived
in apartments.
“The increase [of apartment units]
was much greater than the average
increases in suburban cities and in
cities of similar sizes and rate of
growth as Evanston,” said Albert
Greene Hinman in “Population Growth
and Its Demands Upon Land for
Housing in Evanston, Illinois” (1931).
Maps plotting the location of threestory apartment buildings show they
were clustered near the train and
CTA stops.
memory lane … by les jacobson
Bill Logan, the City’s first African American police
chief, was born in Evanston in the early 1930s.
“I was born at Community Hospital, one of the first
babies that Dr. [Elizabeth] Hill brought into this world.”
“I played sports at the Emerson YMCA. But more than
just athletics, they taught us kids about good values and
proper conduct.”
“As a kid I had a paper route in South
Evanston. People told me the only reason
they allowed me down there was because I
was the paper boy.”
“There was a lot of segregation in
the old days. I had a job as a pinsetter
at the Red Crown Bowling Alley on
Davis Street, but I couldn’t bowl
there. My dad was a cook at the
coffee shop in the North Shore Hotel.
But he couldn’t eat there.”
“The Depression years were difficult
ones, especially for African Americans.
But people came together. They’d
share food and clothing and look out
for each other.”
Lorraine Morton, former
5th Ward Alderman, principal of
Haven School and Mayor from
1993 to 2009, first moved to
Evanston to study at Northwestern
in 1941.
“When I first came to the West
Side of Evanston, my neighbor had
horses, and he used to give kids
hayrides.”
“People built apartments to rent
on their third floors. Blacks didn’t
have a place to stay, and for $25 a
week you could get a room.”
“Community Hospital used to
have grassroots-type fundraisers.
People would set up card tables on
their lawns in the summer and sell
food and punch to raise money.”
“There were Quonset huts on the banks of the
North Shore canal for people to live in, which had
been built during the war for veterans. People were
living there in the fifties. Housing was that tight.”
in the growth of Evanston’s African
American community, said Andrew
Wiese in an article, “Black Housing,
White Finance: African American
Housing and Home Ownership in
Evanston, Illinois, Before 1940,” and in
his book “Places of Their Own” (2004).
He theorizes that Evanston was
different in this respect from other
suburbs because Evanston was home
to a well-established African American
community by the time of the Great
Migration of African Americans
from the south to Northern cities. In
addition, he says African American
s
In 1918, a black minister
Mr. Hinman reported that
“broke the color line” on
Ayars Place, now known as
the “chief preference for
Garnett Place, said Andrew
apartments is shown by the
Weise. By 1925, 75 percent of
native white and those in the
the homes on the one-block
higher occupation groups,
street were occupied
which are doubtless also the
by African Americans,
higher income groups;” the
and two-thirds owned
“apartment is desirable chiefly
their own homes.
to the small family;” and
“newcomers to the city in the
majority prefer apartments,”
with 65 percent of the families who
the City could accommodate 96,000
lived in Evanston less than one year
people, said the League of Women
living in apartments.”
Voters, down from its estimate of
In 1930, there were 18,866 recorded
400,000 under the 1921 ordinance.
lots in Evanston; 12,671 were built on
A Segregated Town
and 6,195 were vacant. Mr. Hinman
suggested that “an undue proportion
Evanston’s first African American
of land” may be zoned for apartment
residents arrived in the 1850s, and by
and commercial uses, thereby
1880, there were approximately 125
inhibiting the development of singleAfrican Americans in Evanston. The
family homes.
number grew to 1,100 in 1910.
In 1940, the City amended its zoning
Unlike many suburbs that sought to
code and shifted property from the
exclude African Americans altogether,
apartment district to the single-family
leading members of Evanston’s real
district. Under the 1940 zoning code,
estate establishment played a role
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workers supplied labor that was
in demand by white elites in
Evanston, and they had personal
ties with white families all over
town.
There was a major caveat,
though. “Evanston’s white
real estate brokers apparently
developed a practice of informal
racial zoning. In effect, they
treated a section of west Evanston
as open to African Americans,
while excluding them from the rest
of town.”
Recent Trends, Higher
Density and Up
After the Depression and the
Second World War, a building
boom in the 1950s used up most
of Evanston’s remaining vacant
land.
“Beginning in the 1960s,
the City entered an era of
development in which most new
construction did not take place
on vacant land, but converted
already developed land to more
intense uses,” said the City in its
1972 Comprehensive Plan, Part
I. “Greenhouses gave way to
homes and schools, old homes in
apartment zones were replaced
by multi-story apartments
or condominiums, obsolete
commercial buildings were torn
down and new office buildings
and supermarkets with off-street
parking were built in their place. “
Some of the more blatant
methods used to exclude African
Americans from certain areas
included the following: loans were
denied to African Americans to
buy homes in white areas; in 1922,
residents established the West
Side Improvement Association to
“preserve [the area south of the
black district] as a place for white
Optima Views, a 28-story building at 1720 Maple Ave.,
people to live”; a “syndicate” was contains 204 condominium units.
Land use became more intense as
formed to buy properties that were
time went on. Other shifts occurred
“at risk of being sold to African
“Growth in size and numbers notas well.
Americans.” Some white property
withstanding, in 1960 black Evanston
On a small scale, people bought
owners signed restrictive covenants
remained a racially segregated enclave
homes, tore them down and replaced
legally binding them not to sell to
on the west side of town.”
them with larger homes. This caused
“Negroes,” although Mr. Wiese said
In July 1963, 1,000 people marched
a fury in the late 1990s and the early
such covenants were uncommon in
in Evanston to protest the murder
2000s, with neighbors claiming that
Evanston.
of Mississippi NAACP leader
people were replacing small homes
Mr. Wiese said African American
Medgar Evers. Reverend Maurice
with “McMansions” that were not
families were displaced from neighborHiggenbotham, pastor of Ebenezer
compatible with the neighborhood.
hoods that were located outside the
Baptist Church, condemned not only
After imposing a moratorium, the City
west side of town. In the early 1900s,
the murder, but the “impenetrable
adjusted the height restrictions on new
many African American families lived
wall of gentlemen’s agreements that
homes.
near the railroad tracks or the edges
prevented blacks from living or moving
In the 1970s, developers began in
of downtown. As these areas were
freely in the suburb.”
earnest to convert apartment buildings
converted to industrial or commercial
In 1967, School District 65
into condominiums. This enabled
use, “black families were dislocated to
implemented a plan to desegregate
landlords to sell their buildings for
the west,” said Mr. Wiese.
its schools. Busing African American
a profit and also provided buyers a
The effect was stark. “Between 1910
children was an essential part of
chance to enter the housing market,
and 1940, there was not a single area
the plan because of the segregated
oftentimes at lower prices than the cost
of African American expansion outside
housing patterns in Evanston.
of a single-family home. Conversions,
of west Evanston, in spite of black
though, had a downside. They
In 1968, Congress passed the
population growth of almost 5,000,”
displaced many tenants and eliminated
Fair Housing Act that prohibited
said Mr. Wiese. By 1940, 84 percent of
many apartments with affordable rents.
discrimination in housing on the basis
African American households lived in a
The impact fell most heavily on lowof race. The City quickly passed a
section on the west of town.
income households.
similar ordinance. Although these laws
In the 1940s and 1950s, Evanston’s
were passed, many areas in Evanston
African American population grew
continue to be predominantly occupied
by 3,100 people, an increase of 50
by one racial group.
percent.
Developers have also continued to knock down buildings
and build much larger, and at times, much taller ones.
In south Evanston, for example, a 17-story building was
constructed at 415 Howard St., containing 221 rental units
(2008).
Other examples include two planned unit developments
constructed along Chicago Avenue, one just south of
Keeney Street, containing 90 townhomes, and another just
south of Kedzie Street, containing 214 apartment units.
Downtown Evanston has been transformed. Between
1997 and 2008, a total of 1,743 new condominium or
apartment units were built in downtown Evanston, with six
buildings containing 15 or more stories. The three highest
residential buildings are Sherman Plaza with 26 stories and
253 condominium units at 807 Davis St. (2007); Optima
Views with 28 stories and 204 condominium units at 1720
Maple Ave. (2003); and the Park Evanston with 24 stories
and 283 rental units at 1630 Chicago Ave. (1997). Many
of these new housing units attract persons without schoolage children.
More large-scale residential developments are underway
or are on the drawing boards.
The 2010 census reports there are 33,181 housing units
in Evanston, 30,047 of which are occupied. Of those, 55.3
percent are owner-occupied and 44.7 percent are renteroccupied.
People continue to be attracted to Evanston for a variety
of reasons, but the four-mile limit is no longer one of them.
“Evanston’s distinct character is derived from its physical,
economic and cultural strengths. People are drawn to
Evanston’s location along Lake Michigan as well as its
unique business districts, attractive homes on tree-lined
streets, and pleasant public parks,” says the City’s 2000
Comprehensive General Plan. “In many ways, the character
of Evanston mixes the charm of a suburb with the dynamics
of a City.”
Based on a community survey, the City said other
reasons why people choose Evanston include good public
transportation to Chicago, the quality of housing, employment in the City, good public schools, the presence of
Northwestern University and Evanston’s racial and ethnic
diversity.
People who live in downtown Evanston, where the new
residential units generally attract people who do not have
school-aged children, gave slightly different reasons in focus
groups a few years ago. According to the City, the five main
reasons people choose to live in downtown Evanston are
“the desire to live in an urban environment; the convenience
of good transit to jobs in downtown Chicago; the unique,
pedestrian character of downtown Evanston; the educated
population of Evanston; and the proximity of downtown to
Lake Michigan.” n
From Buggies to Motorcars:
Henry Butler Adapts
His Livery Business
Henry Butler was one of Evanston`s first
prominent African American businessmen. He
came to Evanston in 1882, and after nearly 10 years
working as a coachman, he started his own livery
and horse-teaming business, assisted by Margaret
Photos courtesy of Shorefront Legacy Center
Fisher, bookkeeper. He had two livery barns,
70 teams of horses in use, and employed 40 men.
He also operated a large blacksmith and repair
shop. He subsequently started a cab company.
At the height of his career, he owned more than
200 vehicles and employed about 50 taxi drivers.
His business was located at 1719 Maple Ave.
your own wheels:
Chicago Avenue Became
“Automobile Alley”
In Evanston, from the 1940s onward,
Chicago Avenue south of Dempster Street was
the place to buy a car. Most car dealerships
have left, but the Autobarn, one of the area’s
largest, remains on Chicago Avenue just south
of Greenleaf Street and has expanded to both
sides of the street. Robert Teska writes that
in the 1950s, “the automobile replaced the
pedestrian as king throughout America. This
was evidenced dramatically by the construction
of expressways, shopping centers” and other
amenities for cars and their passengers. In this
photo are a customer and, perhaps, his new car
at Norman Oldsmobile on Chicago Avenue.
Photo courtesy of Evanston Photographic Studios
Rockwell Associates
cinda jo berry
Architecture & Planning
DESIGNER/PRINCIPAL
cjb
rockwellassociates.net
design associates, inc.
www.cjbdesignassociates.com
[email protected]
1124 FLORENCE AVENUE ~ EVANSTON, ILLINIOS 60202
TEL:1-847-570-9956 ~ CELL: 1-773 - 750 - 1449
An Evanston Business for Over 30 Years
Ellen Rockwell Galland
1124 Florence Avenue
Evanston, IL 60202
847-328-9390
Evanston’s rail journeys
how our city rolled
by matt simonette
It all started with a stagecoach.
Before the railways made it to
Evanston, the stagecoach passed
through the area, making its day-anda-half journey between Chicago and
Milwaukee. It was Evanston’s single
means of public transportation. The
stagecoach drivers reportedly enjoyed
jostling the passengers during the
rough ride along the Green Bay Trail
(much of which became Ridge Avenue
in Evanston), so locals were ready for
a new means by which to make it into
Chicago and other points on the
North Shore.
That new means of transport arrived
in December of 1854, when the first
locomotive reached Evanston.
The First Train Line Evolved
Into Metra’s North Line
By donating the right-of-way and
paying for a depot site, Andrew Brown,
a Northwestern University trustee and
one of the City’s founders, convinced
the Illinois Parallel Railroad Company,
which was laying a track between
Chicago and Waukegan (and, later,
Wisconsin), to move its route closer
to downtown Evanston. The Chicago
and Milwaukee Railroad commenced
service on that track in 1854 and
connected to service in Wisconsin
in 1855.
At first there was only one train in
the morning and one in the evening.
One Evanston commuter reported
he had to leave his home at 4 a.m. to
arrive at his office in Chicago by 7 a.m.
Railroads generally ran inbound
trains on the right-hand side of double
tracks. After the double track operation
began, however, C&NW kept inbound
trains to the left, the east side of the
tracks. Depots were already located
to the east of the tracks, the train
company rationalized, so passengers
would surely want to be able to
wait in the depot before they left in
the morning rather than when they
returned in the evening.
Another reason for the unorthodox
positioning was C&NW’s notorious
frugality, which was widely known
even amongst its customers; they
joked that C&NW, which made do
with secondhand equipment whenever
possible, stood for either “Cardboard
& No Wheels” or “Cheap & Nothing
Wasted.” C&NW simply did not want
to pay for the new depots.
Trains at one time stopped at Calvary
Cemetery, Main Street, Dempster
Street, Davis Street and Central Street.
The C&NW eventually operated a third
track for express service. But the track
proved to be superfluous and was
gradually removed. The third track and
the Calvary and Dempster depots were
gone by the 1950s.
In 1995 C&NW merged with Union
Pacific, and the line now runs under the
auspices of Metra.
The Beginnings Of
The Purple Line
The early years of the 20th century
were unkind to the Evanston commuter.
Another train service, the Chicago
Milwaukee & St. Paul line, had
attempted to compete with C&NW
but went out of business. Getting to
downtown Chicago was difficult if a
passenger could not follow C&NW’s
schedule.
A new line, the Northwestern
Elevated, began serving Evanston in
1908, having been extended from
the original line between Clark Street
and Wilson in Chicago. There were
ultimately stops at Howard, Calvary,
Main, Dempster, Davis, Foster, Isabella
and Central.
Despite the line’s moniker, the
Northwestern Elevated was not actually
elevated until 1910, at the behest of a
City of Evanston mandate. The C&NW,
which ran parallel to the “L,” elevated
its tracks at the same time. In 1911,
the Northwestern Elevated was loosely
affiliated with the region’s other three
s
For many years, before development
along the line boomed in the 1870s
and 1880s, Evanston was the only
incorporated township along the line,
which was purchased by the Chicago
and North Western Railroad Company
(C&NW) in 1883. The railroad consisted
of a single track between Chicago and
Waukegan; double track operation did
not begin until 1882.
Commuters getting off the train at Central Street
Photo courtesy of Evanston Photographic Studios
From 1925 to 1948, when the CTA’s Yellow Line (the
“Niles Center branch”) stopped in Evanston, there were stations
at Ridge, Asbury and Dodge avenues, according to the website
Chicago-L.org. The Asbury station was designed by Arthur U.
Gerber and had a “clever mix of styles”
that combined elements of Doric and Beaux Arts
designs, executed in terra cotta. In photo at right
is the Asbury Avenue station, circa 1924-25.
Photo from the J.J. Sedelmaier Collection
“L” systems and became part of the Chicago Elevated
Railways Collateral Trust. In 1924, the Northwestern
Elevated was officially consolidated into the Chicago
Railways Trust, and, in 1947, its assets were purchased by
the CTA.
The Evanston line became the Purple Line in 1994.
Evolution of the Skokie Swift
Connecting Evanston with Waukegan, the Chicago and
Milwaukee Electric (C&ME) began serving the City in 1899
and eventually reached all the way to Milwaukee in 1908.
They took over the tracks of the Chicago Milwaukee & St.
Paul line, which had gone out of business.
In C&ME’s early days, passengers from points north had
to suffer a particularly inconvenient detour. The Village
of Kenilworth did not grant the train a right-of-way, so
passengers had to disembark at one side of town and either
walk or ride by buggy to a different train that was waiting at
the other side.
In order to induce more people to take the trains, C&ME
in 1904 built the Ravinia Festival park – famously referred
to by Sir Thomas Beecham as “the world’s only train station
with its own orchestra” – in Highland Park. In 1916 the line
became the Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad –
also known as the North Shore Line – and by 1919, service
was extended to Chicago’s Loop by way of “L” tracks,
making the line a true interurban railway.
commute times. The North Shore Line was thus rerouted
in the mid-1920s. When trains from Chicago reached the
Evanston border, they veered off on a right-of-way about
two blocks north of Howard Street and traveled west.
Though “L” stations were located along the route at Asbury,
Ridge and Dodge, these stops were for the Chicago Rapid
Transit Company that was also utilizing the same tracks, and
the North Shore Line trains did not stop at those stations.
The North Shore Line trains continued on to Dempster
Street in Skokie, and farther into the Skokie Valley and,
eventually, Wisconsin.
The Great Depression and World War II brought
development to a standstill along the North Shore Line. In
1948, the underutilized Skokie Valley Route was closed. In
1963, the CTA took over the Howard-to-Dempster portion
of the line in what was to be a one-year pilot program. The
line, which runs through but does not stop in Evanston, is
what is now known as the Yellow Line, or the Skokie Swift.
In 2011, a local survey determined that reopening the
Asbury station might increase Yellow Line ridership; a study
of the proposed station began in 2012 and is expected to
take several years. n
As the North Shore suburbs developed, however,
congestion began to slow the trains and take a toll on
Tidbits
Let there be light: The C&NW Davis Street platform
was often lined with lanterns. Commuters used them to
find their way between their homes and the station in the
early morning or evening hours. (During the day, train
workers would service the lanterns for the customers.)
Wired: Evanston was the last place where the CTA
used overhead electric wires to power its trains. The wires
came down in 1973 on the Purple Line and the Skokie
Swift in 2000.
Connected: The 9:55 a.m. North Shore Line train to
LaSalle Street Station was known as the Eastern Limited.
It was timed to arrive downtown so businessmen and
well-heeled travelers could easily connect with the plush
Twentieth Century Limited departing for New York City.
The Twentieth Century was recreated by Hollywood in the
1959 Alfred Hitchcock thriller “North by Northwest.”
End of the Line: Calvary Cemetery was a stop on many
railroad services through Evanston, among them the
C&NW, NSL, and the “L.” The cemetery was difficult to
reach by horse and buggy, so the railroads were often
used to transport bodies and funeral processions to
the cemetery.
Preserved: The Chicago History Museum and the
Illinois Railway Museum in Union have several pieces of
North Shore Line and rapid transit equipment in their
collections.
EVANSTON IS … ALL ABOUT FOOD 15
THE DAYS OF
“madman”
muntz
The inventive and marketing
genius Earl “Madman” Muntz
visited Evanston for a few brief
years in the late 1940s and early 1950s. His plant at 1000
Grey Ave. turned out hand-crafted Muntz Jets, among
the top luxury cars in the United States – the modern
replacement, he said, for the Stutz Bearcat. A 1951 article in
the Evanston Review said, “The Bearcat was strictly for sport
… while the Jet is an all-weather car that can be used for
any type of driving.”
The Jet was fast – reaching 50 miles per hour in 6 seconds
and capable of 125 miles per hour – but safe, Mr. Muntz
said. Among its features were a radio built into the center
console, two ice boxes that would keep food and drinks
cool for up to seven hours and an early version of the
T-top – a wholly removable steel top to make the Jet into
a convertible.
The Muntz Jet was a makeover of the Kurtis Kraft, a race
car made by Frank Kurtis of California. Mr. Muntz reportedly
purchased the Kurtis Company within three days of meeting
with its owner. After making only 28 Jets in the California
plant, Mr. Kurtis brought the company to his native Midwest
and opened the 42,000-square-foot Grey Avenue plant,
where about 20 cars were produced each month. In 1952,
according to the Review story, Mr. Muntz added 5,300
square feet to the factory. “There are 250 employees on this
The Muntz Jet was luxury-car
expensive in 1951 – about $5,000.
A recent advertisement for a “1953
Muntz Road Jet” said “the car has
been appraised at $158,200. …”
There are only 12 known 1953 Jets
left and none is finer than this one.”
Photo courtesy of Jeff Rense
assembly, 237 of whom work on the line. All are organized
and have insurance benefits,” said the Review article.
At the plant, the steel body was “formed on the Muntz
jig;” suspension springs, tires, steering, motor, glass and
lights were added; then, “a buffing job and the Jet is ready
to roar away,” the Review story continued.
By the time he turned to car manufacturing, Mr. Muntz
had already made a fortune with his single-knob television
sets. He sold his cars the way he sold his televisions – with
aggressive marketing right to the customer. Selling himself
as a man as mad as Napoleon, he meant to be “a little
zanier than the other zanies in the Hollywood area,” the
Review article said. There was no retail; customers would
pick up the car (or the television set) at the factory.
Automobile production at the Evanston plant ceased in
1951, as air-conditioning attracted Mr. Muntz’s attention.
For the next several months the space was devoted to a
“development laboratory and model shop for the perfecting
of designs for room-sized air-conditioners.” By the time the
models were perfected, the operations were moved
to Chicago.
CE Niehoff, an employee-owned company, manufactures
parts for heavy-use vehicles at the same Grey Avenue location.
memory lane … by les jacobson
louise willis, 108 years old, born
and raised in Evanston:
“I was born in a house on Main
Street, east of Ridge. Two years
later we moved to a home
on Hinman. Evanston was a
small village back then. The
northern part of Evanston
was mostly fields, just a
few buildings and homes.
I graduated in the last
class of the old Evanston
Township High School, at
Dempster and Elmwood. The building was
way too small by the time we left. For fun
our family would go to No Man’s Land along
Sheridan Road, where we’d have ice cream
at the old Peacock’s. As teens we’d go to
dinner dance at the Edgewater Beach Hotel
in Chicago.”
norman raedle was born in Evanston in 1929. He
worked at First National Bank of Chicago from 1953 until his
retirement as Vice President of Commercial Loans in 1988.
“During the 1930s I saw the German dirigible Graf
Zeppelin over Lake Michigan, on a goodwill tour of the
U.S. We watched it out a window from the bedroom.”
“The house down the street from us had the local
ice concession. Those were the days before
refrigerators, and they would deliver blocks of
ice through a hole in the door. They’d give us
kids slivers of ice to suck on during the hot
summer days.”
“Our family lived in the old Masonic
Temple on Maple Avenue during the 1930s.
My father was the caretaker; my mother
worked as a maid. Nothing much happened
there. It was great as a kid to have the run
of the place. But the Depression years were
grim, no doubt about it.”
TINKERING WITH SPOOLS AND STICKS
“Once upon a time in a beautiful
city on the shores of a bright blue
lake lived two little tinker men.
They loved good little children and
wanted to make them very happy,
so they toiled and toiled to build a
wonderful workshop where they could
make playthings for these good little
children.” So wrote Charles Pajeau
in 1923 of how he and Robert Pettit
founded the company known then
across the country as Tinker Toys.
From watching children play, Mr.
Pajeau saw that children love to learn.
He also noticed that rich children
quickly became bored with their
expensive, one-trick toys and that
poorer children created toys from what
they had. Thread spools and sticks,
common household items in the early
part of the 20th century, became the
backbone of the Tinker Toy concept.
During World War I, an advertising
campaign bore a message from Santa
Claus and Uncle Sam: To become
“real” Americans, children in this
country need real American-made toys.
Mr. Pajeau based Tinkertoys on
geometric principles. The company
believed that toys facilitated learning,
exploration and play. In keeping with
that philosophy, they did not include
war toys or weapons in their instruction
booklets.
John Wright, who joined the
company in 1951, became the Art
Department, said his daughter,
Kathy Ade. The company was then
transitioned to Spalding’s ownership.
Mr. Wright suggested adding color,
to make the instruction booklets easier
to follow, and the natural pine sticks
became bright red, yellow,
On his commute from Evanston
to Chicago, Mr. Pajeau struck up a
friendship with Robert Pettit.
blue and green, depending on
their length.
A.G. Spalding Brothers bought
the company in 1952. Craig
Strange, author of “Collector’s
Guide to Tinker Toys,” wrote that
the deal “was struck on a golf
course during a game. Charles was
persuaded that if the company
was not sold before his death,
the ultimate disposition of the
company [might] not be according
to his wishes.” He died later that
year in his penthouse apartment
at the Orrington Hotel.
“When his will was read,”
writes Mr. Strange, “it was learned
that Charles had set up a trust to
benefit children from poor and
disadvantaged backgrounds. Half
of Charles’ estate went into the
trust, and Grace Pajeau [his wife]
would later add to the fund upon
her death.”
In death as in life, Mr. Pajeau
showed his faith in children.
The two found much in common,
including a dislike for their jobs and
a taste for entrepreneurship.
In 1913 they set up shop as the Toy
Tinkers of Evanston in Mr. Pajeau’s
basement at 325 Greenwood St.,
eventually opening a factory in the
1920s at 2012 Ridge Ave.
Still popular today…
John Wright’s greatgranddaughter creates
a contraption – or
maybe a swingset.
Whimsy, innovation and shrewd
marketing soon put the Toy Tinkers
of Evanston and their natural wood
spool-and-stick toys in homes across
the country.
Unitarian Church of Evanston

Join us on Sundays at 10:30 for worship and religious
education.
Offering part-time preschool
and pre-K programs for children
Offering part-time preschool
ages 2-5 in Evanston since 1934!
and pre-K programs for children
ages about
2-5 in the
Evanston
since
Call
2013-14
wait1934!
list,
and select openings for four
Call about the 2013-14 wait list,
year olds in our pre-K program!
and select openings for four
year
in our pre-K
program!
Moreolds
information:
847-864-3889
847-864-1330 www.ucevanston.org
More information: 847-864-3889
Founded in 1891
Originally named Church of All Souls
as a community of liberal religious faith and good works.

We promote human dignity and the free and
responsible search for truth and meaning.


www.slcevanston.org
www.slcevanston.org
Once upon
a PIER or two
by mary helt gavin
Until nearly the turn of the 20th century,
Evanston’s lakefront was “a place of industry
dominated by two commercial piers,” writes
historian Janet Messenger. Lumber for new
buildings in Evanston and coal to heat them hauled
off the piers – and before that, fished out of the
water when the delivery boats literally dropped off
the lumber.
The Davis Street Pier came first, built just before the Civil
War in 1857. The sands of time – and of Lake Michigan –
cut its useful life short after only a few decades, though its
stumps remained in the lake until the 1940s. The Dempster
Street Pier – usually called Foster Pier after its builder, John
Jacob Foster – was built in 1878. Its legacy is found in the
westward crook of Sheridan Road just south of Dempster
Street.
The 50-foot wide Davis Street pier rose from the swampy
foot of Davis Street and extended 1,200 feet into Lake
Michigan. Ms. Messenger writes, “By 1861 excursion
boats like the Comet and Lady Franklin landed at the pier,
bringing picnickers and sightseers from Chicago.“
Jacob P. DeCoudres purchased the Davis pier in 1871
and “soon Mr. DeCoudres’ two schooners, the threemasted J. P. DeCoudres and the two-masted Hattie Fisher,
named for his daughter, began plying the waters between
his pine forests in Michigan and his pier in Evanston,” Ms.
Messenger writes. Three years later, “the Ben Drake was
running a twice-a-day commuter service between Chicago
and Evanston.”
That was about the extent of the shoreline success
that would be permitted to Mr. DeCoudres. His petition
to build a booth for visitors by the Davis Street pier
having been denied, he tried again – again futilely – to
enlarge his lakefront enterprise. Three years later, in 1881,
Northwestern refused to lease the shore approach to Davis
Street pier to Mr. DeCoudres’s son, who had taken over
the business.
Foster Pier, more than twice the length of the Davis Street
Pier, reached a half-mile into the waters of Lake Michigan.
The coal and lumber trade of Evanston and the North Shore
soon coalesced around Mr. Foster’s pier. It had a steampowered hoist and a narrow-gauge track to handle coal,
which Mr. Foster called his “black diamonds.”
Excursion boats stopped at Foster Pier as well. Ms.
Messenger writes, “Sidewheelers tied up there for picnickers.
Steamer parties carried groups of friends to Lincoln Park for
the day. And during the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, the
Christopher Columbus whaleback stopped at Foster Pier to
pick up Evanstonians headed for the White City.”
With all the activities on the lake, the federal government
in 1871 established a life-saving service near Northwestern.
Six years later the United States
Lifesaving Station was completed, to
which a boat house and a tower were
eventually added, and student crews
served there until 1915, when the Coast
Guard was formed.
Evanston’s Coast Guard station was
closed in 1931 and moved to Wilmette,
where the lake was calmer. Northwestern
had the Lifesaving Station demolished in
1954.
Enjoying the beach in front of
Northwestern’s Deering Library
Photos courtesy of Northwestern
University archives
A Bend in the road
On-the-job injuries forced John Jacob Foster into early
retirement. Wilson H. Stubbings purchased the Foster pier,
and David P. O’Leary, the coal company.
After Mr. Stubbings broadened the pier, sandbars formed
around it, making it impossible for commercial ships to
land. Even with the pier unused and the water too shallow
for coal ships, Mr. O’Leary stood firm against the City when
it tried to condemn his coal shed for a right-of-way for
Sheridan Road. After more than a decade of legal battles –
during which time the O’Leary coal shed became as famous
in Evanston as the O’Leary cow in Chicago – Sheridan Road
was built with a bend at the coal-shed site. Ms. Messenger
suggests a sly complicity from Mr. O’Leary’s neighbor
Daniel Burnham, “who was more than happy to have
Sheridan Road jog west of his property.”
But by the 1890s, commercialism had given way to
recreation, and Evanstonians were finding more to enjoy
at the lakefront. The Evanston
Boat Club, organized in 1880,
built its original clubhouse on the
lakefront just north of Church Street,
according to Barbara BuchbinderGreen’s “Evanston, A Pictorial
History.” In 1894 the club sought
grander and more permanent digs
– this time with a main entrance
from Greenleaf Street and a twostory porch facing the lake. “Two
parallel lines of pilings were built 200
feet into the lake, connected by a
line of pilings parallel to the shore;
there was also a 200-foot pier,”
according to the Pictorial History.
The popularity of the club, however
“was its downfall,” as the younger and “wilder” members
of the club kept the older, more prosperous members away.
“Debts remained unpaid, an assignee had to be appointed
to liquidate the property and the club was dissolved,” writes
Ms. Buchbinder-Green.
The Evanston Yacht Club, a second attempt to keep
alive the boating life, was organized in 1903 as a “quietly
exclusive” club. This club purchased the former boathouse
of the Boat Club near Lee Street, “organized rowing crews
and built up a racing fleet of ‘Evanston One-Design’ gaffrigged sailboats.” The club thrived for a while; members
who went to war in 1914 returned to find the harbor “filled
with sand” and the club, unable to dredge the harbor, was
disbanded. n
Lee Street Beach
in the summertime.
Low lake levels in the 1890s made it clear
that the Davis Street Pier would not be
able to accommodate heavy ships. On Dec.
5, 1897, a steam freighter, the George W.
Morley, caught fire and ran aground just
south of the pier. One of its propellers sits on
the lawn of the Evanston History Center, just
yards from where the ship blazed and sank.
The first home of the Evanston Boat Club.
Photo courtesy of Northwestern University Archives
For
Land’s
sake:
Northwestern’s
Lakefill Expansion
by mary helt gavin
Governor Otto Kerner
… according to the University, the
Increasing the shorefront
and Speaker of the House
fear that drove Council’s approval
by filling in the lake, probably
William Redmond, both
taboo now for environmental
graduates of Northwestern’s
was that “the state might extend
reasons, was not a new
law school, to support
Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive as far
idea in the 1960s, when
the measure. The U.S.
Northwestern University
Army Corps of Engineers,
north as Wilmette.
officials began to talk publicly
concerned only with the
about extending the eastern edge of the campus.
project’s distance from established shipping routes, gave a
green light to the project. That was the end of the approval
The foundation of Chicago’s Grant Park was rubble
process; the Environmental Protection Agency, which might
from the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and in Evanston,
have raised some red flags, would not be established until
Northwestern officials had flirted in 1893 and again in 1930
1970.
with the idea of expanding the campus eastward. In 1960
came the official announcement that Northwestern would
Residents voiced some concerns about the increased
purchase 150 acres of lake bottom land from the State of
distance from their homes to the lake, and about what
Illinois at $100 per acre and build out the shoreline 1,000
would happen to Clark Street beach, but, according to the
feet into Lake Michigan.
University, the fear that drove Council’s approval was that
“the state might extend Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive as far
The plan, named for then-University president Roscoe
north as Wilmette. The lakefill, they hoped, would prevent a
Miller, was to add new buildings, fashion a lagoon that
new highway on the suburb’s pleasant shoreline.”
would also function as a cooling pond for the heated water
generated by those buildings, and create a naturalistic park
Construction began in 1962 with a 2,800-foot limestone
and walk along the lakefront, to be enjoyed by students,
seawall, 96 feet wide at the base and narrowing to about 8
faculty and Evanston residents.
feet at the top. It rose 10 feet above the water level, which
was only about 9 feet deep.
Initial plans for the lakefill called for using only about half
of the land, but using those 75 acres nearly doubled the size
Two million cubic yards of sand were brought in
of the campus – from 85 acres to 159. In the late 1960s, 10
from across the lower end of the lake in Indiana, where
more acres filled in on the southern edge made space for a
Bethlehem Steel was dredging Burns Harbor to make
parking deck.
a deeper port. During this time, conservationists were
working to preserve portions of the nearby sand dunes
The relatively smooth approval process, the University
along Lake Michigan as National Lakeshore.
says on its website, was a “sign of political goodwill –
recognition of Northwestern’s staunch efforts during
World War II. [T]he University’s proposal for the new lakefill
Today the 85-acre lakefill,
campus sailed over every political obstacle it encountered.”
with mature trees and
Approval by the Evanston City Council was immediate.
welcoming paths, is a
University business manager William Kerr convinced
familiar promontory
on Lake Michigan.
Photo by Kathy Ade
Help came from Washington, D.C., where President
John F. Kennedy outlined a program “to link the nation’s
economic vitality to a movement for conservation of the
natural environment,” according to the website of the
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. This program, known
as The Kennedy Compromise, 1963-1964, supported both
the National Lakeshore and a port to address the needs of
the steel industry.
At one point, though, the Save the Dunes Council and
other activists thought that Bethlehem Steel’s excavations
were taking sand from what was to become the National
Lakeshore. Protests and appeals to the University to halt
the removal of sand from the dunes area neither deterred
Northwestern nor delayed the project. The lakefill was
dedicated on Oct. 7, 1964, and the Indiana Dunes National
Lakeshore was created in 1966.
Recent and upcoming projects on the original lakefill – the
Bienen School of Music, the visitor center with its massive
parking deck and the athletic complex – will bring University
structures once again near the water’s edge. Sixty-five
acres of lake bottom land still belong to Northwestern,
but University officials say they have “no current plans to
develop that land.”
FR
EE
I N C .
FINNPRO
Environmental stewardship has come a long way since
Northwestern received its rubber stamp in the 1960s to fill
in the lake. Loyola University of Chicago was prohibited
PAINT
ON YOUR
EXTERIOR
WORK
CONTRACTED
bETWEEN
5.9–5.31.2013
847
328 8888
PA I N T S – R E S TO R E S
FULLY LICENSED AND INSURED, EPA LEAD-SAFE CERTIFIED
This sand-bearing barge was one of many that hauled two million
cubic feet of sand from Burns Harbor in Indiana to create the lakefill
at Northwestern University.
Aerial photos of the lakefill courtesy of
Northwestern University archives
several years ago from expanding into the lake. Should
Northwestern again try to expand into the lake, it might find
that the bar of environmental stewardship is very high. n
Create your
garden getaway
847-475-7917
Evanston-Based Since 1979
For All Your Landscaping Needs
Visit our new website:
www.naturesperspective.com
For helpful landscape tips:
www.naturesperspective.com/blog
Angie’s List Super Service Award
Today
counts.
When you’re a new health system, you get t
always been done. We went big. We though
health care, let’s inspire them to see their he
and medical tests, but a lifelong journey of s
steps make a big diﬀerence. And there’s no
Saint Francis Hospital is now Presence Saint Francis Hospital, part
Today counts.
the chance to relook at how things have
ht, in addition to bringing people quality
ealth in a new way. Not just doctor visits
small, manageable steps. Over time, the
better time to start than today.
of the new Presence Health
presencehealth.org/stfrancis
memory lane …
it’s still
business
as usual
for …
lemoi
hardware
Since 1895
vogue fabrics
Since 1945
Evanston
Lumber
Good’s Since 1903
Since 1948
Cahill
Since 1890
VIRAG JEWELERS
Since 1936
CHURCH STREET
BARBERSHOP
Since 1936
TAG’s
BAKERY
Since 1937
bennison’s
bakery
Since 1938
flader plumbing
Since 1918
Downtown Evanston 1920s-1950s
A Sophisticated Shopping Experience
by ann bodine
A long time ago downtown
Evanston was a place where people
would come from miles and miles
away to shop. High-quality department
stores such as Rothschild’s, Lytton’s
and Marshall Field & Company
attracted shoppers from near and far
to the gracious suburb on the lake.
Customers from Elgin to Racine
enjoyed easy access to Evanston by
bus, train or car. Majestic trees, castlelike architecture and a pedestrianfriendly Fountain Square added to the
old-world charm and appeal. Business
was booming. All felt well and
prosperous. However, by the 1950s the
seeds of decline were germinating with
the increasingly popular automobile.
It was unclear how the City would
accommodate the rising demand for
customer parking. And then there
were the shopping malls. The opening
of Old Orchard Shopping Center
In 1916 the City of Evanston
appointed a committee to prepare
a Plan of Evanston. The City Plan
Committee was composed of Dwight
H. Perkins, Thomas E. Tallmadge,
Hubert Burnham and Daniel H.
Burnham Jr. Hubert and Daniel were
the sons of Daniel H. Burnham,
world famous architect and author
of the 1909 Plan of Chicago. The
downtown plan, published a year
later, included recommendations to
expand the commercial park and
build a landscaped public mall from
Sherman Avenue to the Chicago
and North Western Railroad. These
insightful improvements set the stage
for the booming shopping district
that Evanston would become in the
decades to follow.
Hotels anchored the downtown
early in its history. The North Shore
Hotel opened in 1919, followed by
Evanston’s first seven-story building at
1633-41 Orrington Ave. – the Library
Plaza Hotel. Two years later, Victor C.
Carlson built the Orrington Hotel just
one block north.
The Georgian Hotel at 422 Davis
St. opened in January 1927, while
the 200-room Homestead Hotel
at 1825 Hinman Ave. opened the
following year. The impressive
architecture of these new buildings,
complemented by the elegance and
fine service displayed inside the hotels,
contributed to the sophistication and
grace that had begun to characterize
downtown Evanston.
In 1926 Henry C. Lytton & Company
became the first Chicago State Street
store to open a branch in downtown
Evanston. Lytton’s opened its Evanston
store for men in the Orrington Hotel.
Its women’s store opened at the corner
of Church Street and Sherman
Avenue in 1933.
Another early arrival was the Edgar
A. Stevens store, which opened as
a branch silk shop on Orrington
Avenue in 1927. It was converted
into a women’s wear store
in 1929 and soon
became a leader
in the women’s
apparel
industry.
s
Looking north on Orrington Avenue from
just south of Davis Street: the Chandler’s
building is on the right, and in the far
left background the top of the Orrington
Hotel can be seen.
Photo courtesy of Evanston
Photographic Studios
would greatly impact the future of
Evanston’s downtown.
Evanston gracefully accepted its role as
the destination suburb, changing only
when necessary. Marshall Field’s was
one of the department stores that
brought shoppers from along the
North Shore and Chicago to Evanston.
But it was the opening of Marshall
Field & Company on the corner
of Sherman Avenue and Church
Street that created the greatest
impact on Evanston’s reputation as a
“sophisticated shopping destination.”
Marshall Field & Company entered
Evanston in an experimental fashion
Sept. 13, 1928, when it opened a
small children’s shop in a bungalowstyle house at Davis Street and
Hinman Avenue. The shop was moved
to the Carlson Annex building on
Church Street in 1928, expanding
its line to include women’s clothing.
Business was conducted there while
the company was erecting its fivestory French Renaissance building at
Sherman Avenue and Church Street on
the site of the original Haven School.
The million-dollar store, designed by
Graham, Anderson, Probst and White
opened with much fanfare on Nov.
23, 1929. A passage taken from the
Nov. 21 issue of the Evanston Review
describes what customers could
expect once inside the shiny new gem:
“Ultra-modern fixtures containing
attractive displays of the latest styles
of women’s gowns with models
wearing exceptional selections of
the newest styles, a five-room model
apartment, completely furnished
In 1948, the Rothschild building, partially
seen at the north end of Fountain Square
in photo above, replaced the Rood building
(with two cupolas, seen in foreground
of picture on page 25). Fountain Square
was redesigned, and the original fountain
was moved to the Merrick Rose Garden.
A monument to veterans and a fountain
designed by Hubert Burnham were erected
and dedicated in 1949.
and offering timely suggestions for
apartment furnishing and decorations,
an evening room for the selection
of evening apparel, an interesting
book section, where noted authors,
illustrators and publishers will appear
in person from time to time to
speak and autograph copies of their
works, a carefully appointed layette
room, colorful toy section and a
large millinery salon are a few of the
outstanding features which will greet
visitors to the new store.”
The onset of the depression in 1929
slowed Evanston’s progress for a while,
but by the mid-1930s merchants saw
some signs of recovery. In 1939 John
M. Smyth and Company established
a branch of its Chicago furniture store
on Church Street and a few years
later built a four-story showroom. In
1948 the clothing firm of Maurice L.
Rothschild built a brand-new building
on the site where the Rood Building
once stood.
Skyscrapers had already arrived in the
1920s in a handsome cluster near Church/
Orrington: the seven-story Library Plaza
Hotel (1922), eight-story Orrington Hotel
(1923) and nine-story Carlson Building
(1928), all built by native Evanstonian
Victor C. Carlson.
Photo by Janet G. Messenger
By the 1940s Evanston’s downtown
was booming. People came to
Evanston from miles away not only
because of its wide selection of
quality shops, but also because of its
ambiance. Margery Blair Perkins wrote
in her 1984 book “Evanstoniana”
that Evanston “had the highest
concentration of quality stores in the
Chicago area outside the Loop.”
Evanston resident Katherine Byrne
grew up in Ravenswood Manor on
the north side of Chicago and recalls
driving into Evanston in the early 1950s
with her mom and two sisters to shop.
“It was a special treat,” says Ms.
Byrne. “My sisters and I wore dresses
and white gloves. Marshall Field’s
was always our first stop, then to
The Dominion Room on Davis for
tea. Evanston was very exciting and
sophisticated, but never pretentious.”
The City was soon forced to
accommodate the increasing
demand for customer parking.
Parking meters were installed
in the late 40s and by 1952
the City operated 14 parking
lots with approximately 1,000
spaces. However, limited parking
continued to be a strain on
Evanston’s downtown.
Then in 1956, Evanston suffered
its biggest blow – Old Orchard
Shopping Center opened in
Skokie. The sleek, modern retail
space conveniently located just
off the expressway offered
shoppers not only a sophisticated
mix of retail goods, but ample
free parking. And worse yet, its
anchor store was a bigger, newer
Marshall Field’s, destined to
replace Evanston’s smaller store.
A new era had begun.
Robert B. Teska outlines in
his book “Downtown Evanston
Revitalized” how the opening of
Old Orchard ultimately brought
down Evanston’s heyday. He
cites over 70 key businesses
that closed or relocated from
downtown Evanston in the
decades following the opening
of Old Orchard. These included
all of downtown’s department
stores, furniture stores and most
of its upscale apparel stores.
But “[t]he blows were not
fatal,” writes Mr. Teska who lives
and works in Evanston and has
been a long-time participant in
the revitalization of Evanston.
He goes on to say that downtown
Evanston did what it had to do
to survive and that today
Evanston “has become an
inspiration to others and a
model of revitalization effort
and ingenuity.” n
Looking east on Davis Street
in 1946: many cars, two-way
traffic, no stop lights and
no parking meters – yet.
G
OOD'S
Fine Picture Framing
Open Sunday 11-6, Weekdays 10-7, Saturday 10-6
memory lane …
by les jacobson
Byron wilson, was born in
Huntsville, Ala., in 1919 and moved to
Evanston in 1930. He worked at Church
Street Liquors and Schaefer’s in Skokie
from 1969 until his retirement in 2009.
At Schaefer’s he was known as the
“Baron of the Beer Aisle.” He has
served on the Evanston Liquor Control
Board the last 10 years.
“I remember ‘blind pigs,’ which is
what they called homes in Evanston
that served liquor during the Depression and afterwards.”
“There were cobblestone streets when I was a kid and
City Hall was still downtown, at Sherman and Davis. There
were lots of horses and stables around town. Street lights
were located at intersections only, and the stop signs were
made of rubber and sat in the middle of busy intersections.
You could roll over them and they’d pop back up.”
“I saw movies at the old Varsity Theatre on Sherman
Avenue. The ushers were white high school kids I knew,
and they would shoo us black kids upstairs. It wasn’t the
law, just the custom, the way it was. After the lights went
down I’d sneak downstairs, on general principle, then
after 20 minutes or so I’d go back upstairs, because that’s
where the girls were.”
“Of course there was no air conditioning in the old
days. People slept on porches.”
Jay lytle, was mayor when Evanston hit the
economic doldrums after Old Orchard (now Westfield)
shopping center drained the vitality from downtown. “You
could shoot a cannon down Orrington or Davis or Church
at 5:30 p.m. and not hit anybody,” he said.
“The biggest challenge that I faced was to change the
momentum in the downtown area. There was opportunity
to develop a partnership with Northwestern University,
to market Evanston and to expand our liquor licenses,”
said Mr. Lytle.
As mayor, he began talks with Northwestern, faced with
overcoming wariness, if not animosity, by both parties.
“The City had a 30-, 40- or 50-year priority
of wanting money from Northwestern.
Northwestern had a 30-, 40- or 50-year
history of wanting more freedom from
zoning along the lakefront,” said Mr. Lytle.
Out of those talks came the idea for the
24-acre Northwestern University
Evanston Research Park.
Mr. Lytle, who says he believes in
term limits, did not seek a third term
as mayor, retiring in 1985. He has
remained active in community affairs.
“My first volunteer job was serving
ice cream at Evanston’s 100th
anniversary celebration,” said Mr.
Lytle. “Now I’m on the committee
for the 150th anniversary.”
Research, Development and TIFs
COUNTDOWN
TO DOWNTOWN
by MARY HELT gavin
Evanston knew it had to find ways to recover from
the hit it took when Old Orchard shopping mall drew
customers from its small-and-unique-shop downtown
to the national retailers in Skokie. Robert Teska in
his 2007 history and memoir, “Downtown Evanston
Revitalized 1956-2006” credits two mayors, Edgar
Vanneman and James (Jay) Lytle, for the creative and
innovative thinking that not only brought Evanston
back economically but also made it a “model of
revitalization effort and ingenuity.”
City officials in the 1980s looked to a relatively
new state tax incentive, the 1977 Tax Increment
Allocation Redevelopment Act, to help revitalize both
the east and west sides of downtown Evanston. A
tax-increment-financing (TIF) district can be created
by a municipality to aid in economic development
of the area. In a TIF district, the tax increment – the
difference between the base or original property
tax and the tax on the property as improved – can
be retained for public improvements within the
TIF during the life of the TIF, usually 23 years. The
downtown Maple Avenue and Sherman Avenue
parking garages were built with TIF funds.
In 1985 the City created the “Downtown II” or
“Research Park TIF,” to develop the triangle west of
the downtown area (called “Downtown II). A second
TIF, the “Downtown I” or “Washington National”
TIF, created in 1994 and extended in 1999, would
concentrate on attracting retail and residential
commerce to the traditional downtown core,
particularly along Chicago Avenue between Church
and Davis streets, where the headquarters building
of the Washington National Insurance Company
building had stood.
Downtown II TIF
In 1984, the City of Evanston and Northwestern
University formed a partnership to develop the
Downtown II property, a stagnating triangle of land
between the CTA and (now) Metra tracks between
Church and Emerson streets. At the time the
Downtown II area contained, near the south end, a
food store, a surface parking lot, City facilities (public
works, animal shelter and incinerator), the Levy
Center and some popular restaurants.
It was hoped that the new partnership, the
Northwestern University Evanston Research
“Except for the Dominick’s food store with its parking lot on the north side of Church Street, the triangle
between the CTA and Northwestern tracks was an unsightly and incompatible mixture of land-uses. These
included the City of Evanston Public Works facilities and animal shelter, the Northwestern University
maintenance facilities, a Commonwealth Edison transformer and several deteriorated residents.
This was clearly not a part of the downtown for which Evanston was famous.”
– Robert Teska in “Downtown Evanston Revitalized”
This red-brick office building, on
the southwest corner of Maple Avenue
and Emerson Street, was one of the
original Research Park buildings.
It is slated for demolition, to
be replaced by an
apartment complex.
Maple Avenue north of Church Street is
now vibrant with movie theatres, shops
and new high-rise residences.
s
Park (NUERP), would develop the area
as a center for technological research
and industries – a small replica of the
industrial/research triangle in RaleighDurham, North Carolina.
Creating the research park stirred
resentment among some residents,
particularly since it entailed relocating
some families and some businesses.
Nonetheless City Council voted to create
the partnership with Northwestern. The
first success, writes Mr. Teska, came
when “U.S. Representative Sidney Yates
announced a federal grant to assist
development of a $26 million,130,000square-foot research laboratory,” now
located at the intersection of Maple
Avenue and Clark Street.
The technology innovation center
was formed as part of the partnership. It was an incubator and
“hatched” a spate of successful businesses, many of which
remained in Evanston. In 1997 the incubator was named “Incubator
of the Year” by the National Business Incubation Association.
Nonetheless, NUERP overall failed to attract enough businesses
to help establish Evanston as the Silicon Prairie. In 2006, the City
Council dissolved NUERP, leaving the buildings at the north end of
the triangle to develop as they would and concentrating on making
the south end more commercially viable. The Incubator, now
privately owned, relocated to two different offices: one on Davis
Street, with high-tech offices, and one on Chicago Avenue, with
offices equipped with “wet labs” and more manufacturing-intense
equipment.
The City chose developer Arthur Hill to revitalize the south end.
Mr. Hill brought entertainment in the form of the movie theater
complex (now Century Theatres), lodging with the Hilton Garden
Inn, a residential high-rise designed by architect David Hovey and
smaller enterprises along Maple Avenue. The sole office building,
909 Davis St., has a wide plaza fronting on Church Street, which
is the site for free dancing and music during the summer months.
The redevelopment plan for the
Downtown II TIF initially called for
a performing arts center, but public
money was not available, and private
funds were not forthcoming.
At the north end of the triangle,
aspirations for technology gave way
to residential development. In 2006
and 2007, City Council gave approval
for two residential high-rises, which
have since been consolidated into
a single 368-unit proposal from
developer Robert King. The last of
the original research park buildings
is slated to be demolished to make
way for this proposal. A proposed
arched entrance to the development
on Maple Avenue, the developer said,
is meant to evoke the arch on the
original research park building that it
will replace.
The 1,400-space Maple Avenue
parking garage was built with
Downtown II TIF funds, as was the
new Levy Senior Center, now relocated
to Dodge Avenue and Mulford Street,
at the entrance to James Park.
When the TIF was retired in 2009,
the equalized assessed valuation of the
Onward and Upward
The bank building that has been
on the northeast corner of Orrington
Avenue and Davis Street (now the
Chase Bank building) since 1969
remains Evanston’s tallest building,
at 277 feet, only a foot taller than
Sherman Plaza, built in 2007.
In 1992, construction began for
a new public library building on the
northeast corner of Church Street and
Orrington Avenue, where a public
library building has stood for more than
100 years. Joseph Powell, then only 28
years old, won the international design
competition for the 112,000 squarefoot structure. On a high ledge facing
Orrington Avenue, Richard Hunt’s
sculpture “Bookends” adorns the
outside of the building. Just around the
corner but not quite so high up, a pair
of peregrine falcons and their progeny
have nested, hatched and fledged for
nearly a decade.
Just down the street, the Chandler’s
building, closed in the 1990s was
being revitalized by the Davis Street
Land Company. Chandler’s variety/
department store had operated on the
southeast corner of Davis Street and
Orrington Avenue since 1929. Davis
Street Land Company, together with
Montero Partners, sensitively rehabbed
the original building, designed in 1927
by Edgar Ovet Blake. By removing
a two-story addition, the partners
This building, now called the Chase Bank
Building, is still Evanston’s tallest.
Photo by Janet G. Messenger
created a plaza that complemented
the two others on that corner – the
(now) Chase Bank Plaza and Veteran’s
Memorial Plaza at Fountain Square.
Beginning in 2002, architect David
Hovey designed three apartment
buildings: Optima Views, Optima
Towers and Optima Horizons. With
its steel and glass construction and
balconies decorated with metalwork
the color of rusted iron, Optima
Towers, the first Optima high-rise,
was a source of complaints and
compliments and soon became known
as the “orange balcony building.”
Many new developments were
approved too hastily for some
residents, prompting a renewed
call for a binding review by a citizen
committee that would have final say
on the design of new buildings and
changes to existing buildings that
were in the City-approval process.
Critics of the proposal termed such a
committee the “taste police.”
property was $133 million, compared
to its original EAV of $1.8 million,
making it one of the most successful
TIFs in the state.
Downtown I or
Washington National TIF
This TIF district encompasses most
of the west side of Chicago Avenue
and all of Sherman Avenue between
Church and Davis streets, the south
side of Church Street between
Orrington and Sherman avenues and
Fountain Square.
John Buck and Klutznick-Fisher are
the primary developers of the area. In
1997, Buck built the Park Evanston,
Whole Foods North and the building
that houses Peet’s Coffee & Tea. Ten
years later, in 2007, Sherman Plaza,
a retail-residential complex with
Design Evanston, founded in 1980
by design professionals in Evanston
– planners, architects, landscape
architects, graphic designers, and
interior designers, continued to
promote its theme “Good Design
is Good Business.” Over the years,
Design Evanston has offered pro-bono
advice to property owners wishing
to enhance existing buildings, their
façades, display windows or signage
and has sponsored public forums on
design excellence.
Some other downtown developments
include the following:
• Best Western (built as a Holiday
Inn), 1501 Sherman Ave. (1973)
• Rotary Center (built as American
Plaza), with its Polioplus statue,
indicating Rotary’s mission to eradicate
polio, 1560 Sherman Ave. (1977)
• Davis Transportation Center, where
Metra, PACE, CTA, taxis and bicycles
come together, at Benson Avenue.
(1988)
• Church Street Station, with an
8,500-square-foot roof garden, 1640
Maple Ave. (2002)
• One Evanston, 1570 Elmwood
Ave., LEED-built. (2009)
• Sienna (now being completed
by Focus Development) the square
bounded by Ridge and Oak avenues
and Clark and Church streets.
252 residential units, opened. The
1,600-space Sherman Avenue garage
was built with TIF funds.
The base EAV of the TIF when it was
created in 1994 was about $26 million.
The EAV as reported by the City in
2011 was $100.8 million. The TIF is
scheduled to be retired in 2017.
The 2009 Downtown Plan
and the New Urbanism
The latest downtown plan, adopted
by City Council in 2009, embraces
the concept of “new urbanism.”
The downtown area from roughly
Emerson Street to Lake Street and
Hinman Avenue to Ridge Avenue was
divided into districts, each with its own
height limitations. Transit-oriented
development, pedestrian-friendly
“The Encounter,” the sculpture atop the Maple Avenue Garage
was created by artist Hubertus von der Goltz.
storefronts and form-based zoning are
three hallmarks of the new urbanism.
Residential developments near
public transportation may be higher
and denser and have less parking,
because work and most amenities
(dining, shopping, entertainment)
may be within walking distance or
accessible by public transportation.
Wide sidewalks and inviting storefronts
are envisioned to enhance the
pedestrian experience. New or infill
construction within each district is
supposed to take shape, height and
mass from the context of the area –
its use, open space and neighboring
buildings, for example – rather than
exclusively from the City’s former
zoning code, with its height restrictions
and frequent exemptions. This type of
zoning is called form-based zoning.
In the 10 years before the plan was
adopted, 13 rental and condominium
high-rises were built, with a total
of 1,753 residential units. Almost
simultaneously with its adoption of the
Downtown Plan, City Council approved
The condominium Residences of Sherman
Plaza, in the southwest corner of the
Washington National TIF, balance
the Park Evanston apartment
complex in the northeast corner
(Chicago Avenue near Church Street).
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a 38-story planned development for
the heart of downtown, 708 Church St.,
which has not gone forward because of
the Great Recession.
Yet despite the new residences –
for the general as well as the aging
populations – added in the downtown
area and elsewhere, Evanston’s
population has remained somewhat
steady over the past two decades.
Many of the newer apartments and
condominiums, with two or three
bedrooms, are built for smaller
families, young single (or childless)
professionals or empty-nesters.
The baby-boomer generation,
which began to reach retirement age
at the turn of the decade, will find
itself pampered if Evanston is the
choice for their next stage of life.
Three major retirement homes – The
Mather in the downtown area and
Three Crowns Park and Presbyterian
Homes in northwest Evanston – have
upgraded and expanded and reached
out to aging boomers, offering them
luxurious quarters, exercise rooms,
gourmet food, transportation to
entertainment and a continuing care
environment from active retirement
through nursing and skilled care.
Evanston grows, ages and renews
itself. n
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Building a
Neighborhood:
Evanston’s
Historic
Polish
West Side
By Victoria Scott
Immigrants from northwestern
Poland began settling on and around
Florence Avenue south of Dempster
Street in the early 1900s, lured by
nearby jobs. In an oral history project
from the mid-1970s Abraham Meyer
recalls the “big pits and brickyards” in
Boltwood Park (now Robert Crown),
where “Polish people would pack the
clay into forms and fire them to make
bricks.”
One particular industry helped shape
the neighborhood. “Evanston growth
was based on the Clayton Mark factory.
They had to import help. That’s where
this whole West side Polish section
came from,” says Mr. Meyer.
Clayton Mark and Company was
founded in 1900 at the corner of
Dempster Street and Dodge Avenue,
the present site of Evanston Plaza. A
tannery probably occupied the spot
earlier, says Dick Peach, a long-time
West-side resident and business
owner. Clayton Mark manufactured
wrought steel pipe and water well
supplies and was for a time the City’s
largest employer, with sales exceeding
$10,000,000 a year and products
sold worldwide. Mr. Peach recalls the
company-sponsored men’s softball
team that played in Boltwood Park.
The factory was “a big operation,” he
says. “A lot of folks worked at the steel
plant and walked to work.”
The Polish neighborhood nurtured
its own entrepreneurs as well – owners
of mom-and-pop stores that provided
Purwin’s Cake Box Bakery, 1124 Florence Ave., closed in 1980. It is now a small
office building and home to the Evanston RoundTable Newspaper.
nearly everything residents needed.
They helped create the sort of “selfcontained place” that is the definition
of a neighborhood, says Mr. Peach.
Matt Poleski, 70, grew up at the
corner of Crain Street and Florence
Avenue, surrounded by relatives.
His grandparents had a grocery
store on Crain a half-block west.
They lived in the back and rented
out two apartments above the
store. Close by, he remembers,
were a lampshade shop, a hardware
store, a soda shop and, south on
Florence, Turski’s grocery and candy
store. A popular butcher shop at
Florence and Greenleaf sold only to
select customers. Farther east, on
Wesley, was a greenhouse where Mr.
Peach’s grandfather raised orchids.
“Everything was right there, within
walking distance,” Mr. Poleski says.
Purwin’s Cake Box, which baked
and sold confections at 1124 Florence
from around 1920 until 1980,
attracted a wider clientele. So many
automobiles lined up to buy Purwin’s
breakfast pastries that “on weekends
you couldn’t get down Florence,” Mr.
Peach says.
On their corner, Mr. Poleski’s mother
operated Lorraine’s Beauty Shop,
while his father sold work clothes and
shoes in his dry goods store, Matt’s
Bargain Room. Three apartments and
a barbershop occupied the building’s
main floor.
On the top floor, where their toy
store languished, the Poleskis started
a key club, the Room at the Top. It
became a Polish social center on
weekends, with dances and parties for
locals. His parents brought in catered
food and, since Evanston was a dry
town, people brought their own liquor,
says Mr. Poleski.
If the factories were the neighborhood’s shoulders and the social club
its heart, Ascension of Our Lord
Roman Catholic Church was its soul.
The Polish congregation grew from a
mission to become a national parish
in 1912. They purchased land on
Wilder Street between Florence and
Ashland avenues and built a churchschool building and rectory that were
dedicated on June 8, 1913.
The Felician Sisters opened
Ascension School in September 1913
with 100 students. Though enrollment
was small – at its height in 1928-29
just 385 – the sisters continued to
educate Polish American children
there for nearly 60 years. Ascension
School closed in June 1971, when the
projected enrollment had fallen to 40.
After World War II many of the
young parishioners moved to northern
and western suburbs and during
the 50s Mr. Poleski witnessed the
consequent decline of the Polish
language. “My grandparents spoke
broken English, my parents knew
both [English and Polish], and I know
a little Polish,” he says.
By 1980 Ascension was celebrating
only one mass in the native language
of its shrinking congregation. Though
four Ascension parishioners traveled to
the Vatican to appeal Cardinal Joseph
Bernadin’s order to close the church,
the diocese shuttered it in 1990.
Diversity was increasing in the
neighborhood, as Mexican families,
many of them Catholic, found homes
nearby. With Ascension closed, the
families were welcomed to nearby
St. Nicholas parish, where a growing
number of them had already chosen
to worship. In a gesture of unity, 75
Mexican families carried an image of
the Virgin of Guadalupe from Ascenion
parish to St. Nicholas parish, where they
held the first Spanish-language mass.
A few Polish stores hung on into
the ‘80s; others adapted well to new
uses. In the early ‘70s the Poleski’s
sold the building and Kathy and Tim
Ade rented the “Room at the Top”
space, converting it to a live/work
studio loft. Mr. Ade was a professor
in the fine arts department at
Northwestern at the time.
Captivated by the neighborhood,
artist Gay Riseborough purchased the
building in 1986 and the mixed-use
zoning continued to attract artists to
the area.
The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church
purchased the empty Ascension
Church from the diocese in 1995,
becoming the first North American
mission of the South-India-based
church to acquire its own building.
Many a mass at the rechristened
St. Mary’s Syro-Malankara Catholic
Church is said in Malayalam. The
processions of Polish worshippers
in colorful, old-world dress that
Mr. Poleski remembers have made
way for Indian congregants in the
vibrant clothing of their native
Kerala.
And a block away because two
grandmothers, Ms. Riseborough and
Mary Trujillo, pursued their dream, a
neighborhood park is rising from the
ashes of a burned-out house. n
St. Mary’s Syro-Malankara Church,
formerly the parish church for the
surrounding Polish neighborhood,
draws its congregation from many
parts of the Chicago area. Many
masses are now said in Malayalam.
Evanston’s
Industrial Past:
Clayton
Mark
and
Company
by toni gilpin
These days, Evanston residents go to the DempsterDodge Plaza to buy things. Once, though, when that area
was home to a sprawling manufacturer, they went there to
make things. Opened in 1900, Clayton Mark and Company
became a principal producer of well equipment and metal
pipe and for decades was Evanston’s largest employer.
Built through entrepreneurial ingenuity and the labor of
thousands of workers, the company was integral to the
city’s growth. That Evanston even possesses an industrial
heritage, however, is not widely recognized.
Expansion to Evanston
Clayton Mark’s life story reads like a Horatio Alger tale,
with a bit of Dickens and a dash of F. Scott Fitzgerald
thrown in. Born in Pennsylvania in 1858, Mr. Mark came
to Chicago as a boy and had no formal education beyond
the 7th grade. His family moved to Iowa a few years later,
but 17 year-old Clayton remained in Chicago. He earned
7 cents an hour as a clerk for a metal manufacturer, and
in 1888 opened his own small pipe production shop in
downtown Chicago.
As business grew, Mr. Mark needed more space and
found it in Evanston, purchasing what had been a wire fence
factory located off Dempster Street just west of Dodge.
Train tracks running adjacent to the property connected it
to Chicago’s transportation network.
Mr. Mark continued to expand his Evanston factory
and also purchased facilities elsewhere, including his own
steel mill in East Chicago, Indiana in 1916. But World
War I stressed the company, and by 1923 Mr. Mark sold
his production operations, including the Evanston plant;
he then opened a new mill on Chicago’s south side. So
through the remainder of the 1920s until the late 1930s the
Evanston factory was part of the Youngstown Steel empire.
At their Chicago plant Mr. Mark and his son Clayton Mark
Jr. perfected electrical welding techniques that became
enormously lucrative. In 1938 the Mark family sold their
Chicago mill and regained ownership of the Evanston
factory. It was rechristened Clayton Mark and Company,
and for most of the 20th century remained the principal
production facility for the company.
Aerial photo of Evanston’s Clayton Mark factory
from the company’s “Mark Times.”
Clayton Mark never resided in Evanston, though he did
ensconce his parents in an Evanston home designed by
renowned architect Howard Van Doren Shaw. Clayton Mark
chose to live in Lake Forest, in a palatial lakefront estate
constructed by Shaw in 1912.
As his wealth grew, Clayton Mark became active in civic
affairs. From the early 1900s through the 1920s he served,
variously, as President of the Chicago Board of Education; of
the Chicago Civic Federation; and of Lake Forest College.
Reflecting the Progressive Era’s ethos, Mark became an ally
of Jane Addams and an advocate for education reform.
Mr. Mark’s most singular paternalistic endeavor, though,
still bears his name – the planned community of Marktown
in East Chicago, Indiana. When Mr. Mark purchased his
Indiana steel works in 1913, he determined, as George
Pullman had before him, to provide housing at low cost
for his employees; at that time workers were in short
supply and decent housing even more so. Mr. Mark again
commissioned Howard Van Doren Shaw, this time to
construct an entire town for 8,000 inhabitants.
The financial difficulties Mr. Mark encountered during
World War I meant that the plan was never completed,
but 200 homes were built and are still standing; Marktown
is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and
today is a low-income residential enclave surrounded by
heavy industry. The nearby BP refinery is endeavoring to
raze the houses to allow expansion of its Canadian tar sand
operation. Many residents are battling the effort, but if they
lose, Marktown will be no more.
His philanthropic activities, however, were not all that
kept Clayton Mark in the public eye. In 1911, Mr. Mark
was returning to his Lake Forest estate when his chauffeurdriven limousine struck and killed a soldier posted at Ft.
Sheridan. Witnesses attested that the victim was hurled
into the air and then dragged hundreds of feet under the
speeding car. Mr. Mark (and his chauffeur) were charged
with manslaughter, though it’s unclear how the case was
resolved.
Unwelcome publicity beset the family again when Clayton
Mark’s 19-year-old daughter
Clayton Mark employees helped
community was augmented
Anna secretly wed Avery
by the great migrations from
build the company and the City of
Rockefeller (nephew of John
southern states in the eras of
Evanston … the existence of the plant the World Wars, and many
D.); they were hustled off
to Europe, where shortly
African American transplants
– and the jobs it offered –
thereafter, Anna gave birth
to Evanston found work at
spurred home building in the area.
to a son.
Clayton Mark. Wilson Holmes
left South Carolina and got
And after his death, in
a job at the plant in 1942; he retired after 40 years with the
1936, headlines trumpeted the ultimate bad news: “Clayton
company.
Mark Estate is Held to be Insolvent.” His mansion was
sold, but Clayton Mark is nonetheless spending eternity in
All these workers found at Clayton Mark something tough
another structure designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw –
to come by today: good wages and long-term employment.
the stately Mark family mausoleum in Lake Forest Cemetery.
By the 1940s, employees could rely on employer-funded
pensions and health care. The company also invested in job
The Largest Employer in Evanston
training. In the 1950s, the company drew notice for its free
Clayton Mark and Company, however, remained a
program – taught in part by a Northwestern psychology
profitable business for many more decades. Over the
professor – for employees who aspired to move into
years thousands of workers – a good percentage of them
foremen’s positions. In the 1970s, the company inaugurated
Evanston residents – found jobs there.
an innovative (and costly) program to train “disadvantaged”
They rarely made news – at least, not for incidents
Evanston residents to develop expertise on a variety of
involving chauffeurs – but Clayton Mark employees helped
machine tools.
build the company and the City of Evanston along with it.
With sales topping $10 million in the early 1950s
When the factory first opened, there was still much open
(a billion-dollar company in today’s dollars), Clayton Mark
land around it with only a few homes immediately nearby.
could afford to provide such benefits to its employees.
But the existence of the plant – and the jobs it offered –
These concessions did not evolve solely as a result of
doubtless spurred home building in the area.
magnanimity from the top; Clayton Mark workers organized
Consistent with the waves of immigration that shaped the
in the late 1930s and through their union pressured
Chicago area, some Clayton Mark employees had German
management to distribute more of its profits back down
surnames. Frank Manteufel was among the first to be hired,
to the employees.
and he remained at the factory for over 40 years. The neat
A decent standard of living and stable employment not
little home he lived in at 1726 Lyons, built in 1895, still
only allowed Clayton Mark workers to support families,
stands.
it enabled them to engage in Evanston’s civic life. Wilson
But in the early 20th century many more workers at
Holmes, for instance, bought a house on Foster Street;
Clayton Mark were Polish. The area around the plant, in
his wife, Bernice, stayed at home to care for their children.
fact, came to be called “Polish Town.” Albert Chojnacki,
They were active participants in their church, and Bernice
who lived just a short distance from the plant at 1531 Crain
was a devoted volunteer for the Girl Scouts. Their daughter,
(the house, built in 1891, is still there) started work in 1903
Dr. Dorothy Williams, now heads Family Focus in Evanston.
and was on the job there 35 years later; Andrew Nieznanski,
But by the 1980s, the Evanston plant, and its workforce,
with the company at least 30 years, lived even closer at
had become obsolete; the factory was demolished in 1985,
1820 Crain; that home, built in 1892, is also still extant.
and Clayton Mark moved its much smaller production
(Both Crain Street homes are visible in the aerial view of
operation to Niles. Like so much of America’s industrial past,
the factory).
Clayton Mark and Company has been largely forgotten.
Three generations of the Peach family, as well, found
Given what it meant to Evanston, it deserves better. n
employment at the factory. William Henry Peach worked for
Clayton Mark in Chicago and transferred to the Evanston
factory when it first opened. In the 1940s his sons were also
employed there, Richard in the machine shop and Robert
in the welding department. And Richard Jr. – known as
Dick Peach, who now serves as Board Chair of the Evanston
Chamber of Commerce – worked at Clayton Mark for two
summers while he was a student at ETHS; his tasks ranged
from sweeping floors to operating a drill press.
As the factory expanded, the Clayton Mark workforce
grew with it – at the height of production in the 1940s
Kitchen /Bath Design & Remodeling • Plumbing • Heating /Cooling
more than 700 people were employed there – and changed
as the decades progressed. Evanston’s venerable black
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1890
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Pumps, Drains and Ditches:
Evanston’s
Pursuit of
Dry Land and
Pure Water
By Victoria Scott
Long before the mortgage crisis,
much of Evanston was under water.
The marsh-like conditions the first
settlers encountered continued to
challenge those who followed. But
if the problem of flooding was a
quagmire, it failed to dampen the
influx of new residents. Lake Michigan
seemed a natural place to send the
increasing waste they produced, until
the lake began to spit back the dirt
it was dealt in the form of disease in
their drinking water.
So began Evanston’s decades-long
quest to drain lowlands and control
flooding, dilute and dispose of sewage
and deliver clean drinking water.
Water, water everywhere – it gave
them cause to think.
Waterlogged: A Young
Evanston Tries to Ditch
the Swamps
Drainage issues plagued Evanston
from the outset. Today’s gracious
city, with its manicured lawns, pristine
beaches and pleasant streetscapes,
is beholden to the ingenious citizens
who, over a century and a half, shaped
it from an amorphous marsh. When
the earliest settlers arrived, only the
Northwestern University campus and
the land along three north-south
ridges rose above the bogs.
Evanston straddles three ridges
created in prehistory by the waves of
Glacial Lake Michigan, then left behind
In digging the North Shore Channel,
contractors used the machinery
developed for the Sanitary and Ship
Canal less than a decade earlier.
Here a steam shovel digs near Lake
Street on Sept. 21, 1908.
Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan
Water Reclamation District
of Greater Chicago
“The Affluent Boating on the Effluent” is a drawing of the North Shore Channel from “The
Evanston Small Parks and Playgrounds Association Plan of Evanston, 1917.” Looking
north from the Emerson Street Bridge, the sketch shows a roadway like today’s McCormick
Boulevard and, on the other bank, a bridle path. Today, the water of the cleaned-up Channel
and the serene glades of the Ladd Arboretum on its banks offer the kind of recreational
respite envisioned a century ago.
as the lake receded. Since they were
25 and 45 feet above the level of Lake
Michigan and could be traversed in
most weather, two of them became
Evanston’s first thoroughfares – the
present-day Chicago Avenue (known
as the East Ridge) and the higher
Ridge (West Ridge) Avenue. The third,
west of town, was known as Dutch
Ridge.
Though they clung to higher ground
when possible, Evanston pioneers
had to navigate the waters trapped
between the ridges to get about.
They called the morass between Ridge
Road and Lake Michigan the “Dismal
Swamp,” writes Viola Crouch Reeling
in her 1906 history of Evanston;
students traversed it by raft or boat to
reach the log schoolhouse. Elsewhere
in town, standing water collected in
sloughs fit only “for swamp grasses
and croaking frogs,” Ms. Reeling says.
The marshes also endangered another
population: The cows that wandered
freely around town frequently became
so mired in the muck that, Ms. Reeling
writes, they had to be “pried out …
by rails.”
The 1840s saw attempts to salvage
some of the sodden territory with
wooden box drains that emptied into
Lake Michigan or the North Branch
of the Chicago River. Mulford’s Ditch
drew water from between Chicago
and Ridge avenues into the lake near
the Northwestern campus. Though
the ditches made some difference, the
condition of many streets remained
appalling. Where the mud was
especially deep, Ms. Reeling says,
placards warned “No Bottom.”
their road construction
method – digging a ditch
and piling the dirt onto
a dike – to build other
Evanston streets.
Road Trip: Big Ditch
on the Prairie
Given their
interconnected waterways
– the Chicago and Des
Plaines rivers and Lake
Michigan – and similar
bog-like settings, the
sanitation issues of
Evanston and Chicago
were inextricably linked.
Chicago emptied its sewage into
the Chicago River, which then carried
it to Lake Michigan. But as early as
1845, waste had fouled the sluggish
river and was polluting Chicago’s
water supply, which came from the
lake. Various flush-and-carry schemes
were devised for conveying lake water
to dilute the sewage – the preferred
means of purifying sewage before
20th-century treatment technologies
became available – and direct it away.
None succeeded.
By 1890 successive outbreaks of
waterborne disease had left Chicago
with one of the world’s highest death
rates.
On the wet prairie west of
town, poor drainage hampered
transportation and settlement. The
single road there, which ran north and
south over the prairie on the east edge
of the forested land known as the Big
Woods, was impassable except in the
drought of late summer and when the
ground was frozen.
In 1855 state legislators created
an Evanston Drainage Committee to
address the issue, the first such agency
in Illinois. This contingent of prominent
men, led by lawyer Harvey B. Hurd,
was charged with making Evanston
land “habitable for incoming citizens,”
says Ms. Reeling. Some speculate
that Mr. Hurd had a personal stake
in the effort, since he had real estate
interests in that area.
One of the committee’s first acts
was to drain the land between the Big
Woods and the West Ridge by creating
the Big Ditch. In her book “The Chicago
River,” Libby Hill suggests they created
the Big Ditch in preparation for a
road enabling Benjamin Emerson,
Evanston’s first milkman, to bring milk
to town from his farm just west of
today’s intersection at Golf Road and
McCormick Boulevard. They replicated
The Chicago
Dilemma: A River
Runs Through It…
But Not Fast Enough
Taking the Plunge: The SDC
Builds a Canal and Extends
Its Reach
In 1889, citizens voted
overwhelmingly to create the Sanitary
District of Chicago (SDC) “to protect
Louise Paullin makes
the first cut for the
groundbreaking of the
North Shore Channel.
Photo from Evanston
Historical Society.
s
the public health by
draining away waste,”
Ms. Hill writes. Just over
a decade later, the SDC
had completed what she
calls “one of the most
innovative engineering
projects the world had
ever witnessed.” The
Sanitary and Ship Canal,
which opened in 1900,
succeeded in reversing
the flow of the Chicago
River. Thereafter waste that emptied
into the Chicago River would flow into
the new canal rather than into the lake.
But trouble was brewing north of
Chicago. The Sanitary and Ship Canal
was built to handle shipping as well as
waste but had not been intended to
ameliorate the filth and stench of the
Chicago River’s North Branch. A North
Shore growth spurt affected the whole
area. Evanston had 500 inhabitants
in 1854 and 10,775 in 1890. And as
farmers continued to drain wetlands
and fell trees, much storm water that
had previously sunk into the ground
rushed across it and into a river
system that, taxed beyond its limits,
overflowed. The North Branch stunk.
And the practice of dumping sewage
in the lake was compromising the
quality of drinking water.
Evanston, confident it could manage
its own sanitation efforts, had seen
no need to join the SDC when it
was created. But by 1902 Dr. Henry
Hemenway was persuasive in his
argument that inadequate drainage
in the territory west of Evanston was
breeding disease. Despite lingering
Varying soil and rock formations
along the route of the North Shore
Channel called for different earthmoving equipment. Here a steam shovel
excavates near Central Street and the
C&NW bridge in June, 1910.
Water Reclamation District of
Greater Chicago
misgivings, Evanston acceded when,
in 1903, the Illinois General Assembly
extended the SDC boundaries to
include the North Shore suburbs.
The Kindest Cut: Digging the
North Shore Channel
The answer to the waste- and
water-related health and nuisance
concerns, it appeared, would be to
dig another ditch – the North Shore
Channel – as an alternative outlet for
Evanston sewage. The SDC wasted no
time. Louise Paullin, daughter of an
Evanston SDC board member, took
the first shovelful of dirt for the North
Shore Channel on Sept. 25, 1907.
Three years later the Channel was
complete – an ambitious, 8-mile-long
(from Lawrence Avenue, Chicago, to
Sheridan Road, Wilmette), 14-foot
deep and 86-foot-wide landmark
known in Evanston as “the canal.”
Richard Lanyon, retired from a
lifelong career at the Metropolitan
Water Reclamation District of Greater
Chicago (MWRD, a renamed SDC)
provided the RoundTable with the
March 1907 Evanston ordinance
spelling out the terms of construction.
The SDC assumed the cost of digging
the Channel and agreed to build
temporary structures, including
bridges and railroad tracks, for use
during construction and to build
permanent bridges. A later dispute
between Evanston and the SDC
resulted in Evanston’s assuming the
costs for most of its sewer conduits
leading to the channel and agreeing to
maintain the bridges.
Evanston specified that the spoil
from the project be transported
beyond its city limits. Wilmette was
similarly inclined, but being apparently
less squeamish, they did allow the
spoil to be used for the lakefill on
which they built Gillson Park. Nearby
is the Wilmette pumping station that
lifts water from the lake into the higher
North Shore Channel “to flush away
the sewage from Evanston and other
communities and scour the filth in the
North Branch,” Mr. Lanyon writes.
The dozen contractors hired for the
channel could look to the expertise
acquired in building the Sanitary and
Ship Canal. The innovative techniques
and equipment developed there were
The Evanston pumping station, completed in 1921, still stands at the corner of Lake Street
and Elmwood Avenue. Pumps like these original ones lift sewage piped in from the low-lying
lakefront in southeast Evanston and send it toward the sewage treatment plant at Howard
Street and McCormick Boulevard.
Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago
recognized as “The Chicago School
of Excavation” and may have shown
the feasibility of digging the Panama
Canal, Ms. Hill says.
Changing Channels: The
Switch from Diluting Sewage
to Treating It
By 1920 Evanston’s sanitary system
had been enhanced with SDC
intercepting sewers. Their job was to
collect the sewage being discharged
into Lake Michigan by Evanston
sewers and redirect it to the North
Shore Channel. The MWRD Evanston
Pumping Station at Elmwood Avenue
and Lake Street still functions to raise
sewage from lower elevations near the
lake, while the rest of the City’s waste
flows by gravity.
In 1928 the MWRD began rerouting
Evanston’s sewage from the North
Shore Channel into an intercepting
sewer that flows along the channel
to the new MWRD sewage treatment
plant on Howard Street at McCormick
Boulevard in Skokie. No longer was
dilution the only way to deal with
waste; sewage could be treated and
its byproducts recovered for reuse.
The North Shore Channel had room
to breathe.
Another Issue: Obtaining
Pure Water
Evanston incorporated as a Town in
1863. By 1874 Charles Judson Gilbert,
the first president of the village board
of trustees, had made good on his
longstanding intention to provide
Evanston with pure drinking water.
Having traveled the country in search
of the best system, he installed a large
Holly engine in a new waterworks
building at the foot of what is now
Lincoln Street. It could pump 2 million
gallons of lake water a day for a
population of 3,062 in 1870.
The facility drew water from the lake
bottom through 16-inch intake pipes
that extended 1,200 feet into the
lake – far enough to draw water not
contaminated by sewage dumped into
the lake.
A year earlier, North and South
Evanston had incorporated separately,
allegedly to escape the financial
burden placed on the Village of
Evanston by the tax-exempt status of
Northwestern University land holdings.
If taxes drove the communities
apart, water brought them together.
North Evanston wells were already
inadequate in 1872. In that year,
Evanston annexed the lakefront
land just east of North Evanston
and deprived its northern neighbor
of direct access to lake water. In
1874 North Evanston petitioned for
annexation to Evanston so they would
have access to pure water. Evanston,
in turn, benefited from the increased
bonding capacity the added property
afforded.
South Evanston held out longer,
waiting till 1892 to merge with
Evanston after multiple attempts to
obtain pure water had foundered.
The well they drilled “spurted up like
an oil geyser sixty feet above the
surface,” says an early account. But,
it continues, “the water was so hard it
could not be cut with an axe.” South
Evanston ran out of money before
they could extend an intake pipe far
enough out in the lake to escape the
increased amount of sewage they
were dumping.
The Whole (Water) Works
for Health’s Sake: Repelling
Germs Attracts People
Evanston continued to add capacity
to its water plant as its population
grew. But in 1913 it addressed another
problem. To combat disease, the water
department built the first rapid water
filter plant on Lake Michigan. After it
began operating in 1914, the Journal of
the American Water Works Association
published statistics showing a significant reduction in gastroenteritis
and typhoid fever attributed to “the
application of disinfection.”
Population spiked in response, as
families flocked to Evanston for its safe
water. In 1954 Evanston made news
again with the report that, halfway
through a 15-year study of the effects
of fluoridation, Evanston’s children had
the nation’s healthiest teeth.
The original waterworks has
undergone several much-needed
expansions to keep pace with an
expanding populace. Evanston has
been distributing water to Skokie and
the Northwest suburbs for years. The
question these days is whether and for
how much to distribute water to more
offshore communities. Though Dave
Stoneback, director of Utilities for the
City of Evanston, calls the subject “a
political football,” he is clear the sale
of water has the potential to be very
profitable for Evanston.
Flooding, the Sequel:
Updating Evanston Sewers
for the 21st Century
By the 1980s and ‘90s, flooding was
again an issue in Evanston, as heavy
rains routinely caused sewage to back
up into basements and pollution was
leaching into the North Shore Channel
and lake.
The City’s combined sewer system,
some of it more than a century old,
was built to carry both sanitary and
storm water and had been declared
inadequate as early as 1902. The system
was clearly not up to a job that was
compounded by increased impervious
paving and the aging of pipes.
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completed a Long Range Sewer
Improvement Program, installing
larger diameter relief sewers and flow
restrictors that force storm waters
to stay in the street, rather than in
basements, until such time as they
can move into the relief sewers.
Meanwhile the MWRD undertook
the Tunnel and Reservoir Plan known
as TARP to alleviate pollution resulting
from sewer overflows and to relieve
local flooding. The conduit known
as Deep Tunnel, located below the
North Shore Channel, is one of the
tunnels in the MWRD system and has
the capacity to hold storm water until
it can be pumped to the Stickney
water reclamation plant for complete
treatment.
Since TARP went online in 1985,
the North Shore Channel and other
waterways have seen an increase
in the numbers and species of fish,
basement flooding has abated and
there have been fewer episodes of
sewer discharge into Lake Michigan.
When the first phase of the McCook
Reservoir is completed in 2017, the
situation is expected to improve
further. n
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The Art
Of Building
A School …
Nichols
School
by Judy Chiss
Nichols Middle School, still one of Evanston’s notable
architectural landmarks, was nothing short of opulent
when it opened in January of 1929. The building
was inspired by the imposing Doge’s Palace
in St. Mark’s Square in Venice, Italy and is an
example of Italian Gothic architecture. Nichols
School was named to honor Superintendent
Frederick Nichols, the driving force behind the
artistic enrichment of Evanston’s public schools
in the early twentieth century, and the energetic
visionary for artistic enrichment in the Evanston
schools. Every window, hallway, classroom,
and stretch of wall, stairway, and minute ornamental
detail of the school represents collaboration between
Superintendent Nichols and the project architects, Smith
& Childs. It is known that Superintendent Nichols collected
much art through his frequent travels and that project
architect Frank Childs researched extensively and devoted
two years to consideration of the architectural details of
the building.
The exterior of the magnificent building remains much
the same as it did eighty-four years ago. Especially
impressive is its tall copper-spired clock tower, the clay tile
roof, pointed arch windows, stained and leaded window
glass, intricately carved stonework, and patterned brick
façade – all of which look more like the features one
expects to see on old cathedrals, but
hardly on public schools. In the early
decades of Nichols School, students
studied at massive wooden tables in
front of an ornately carved fireplace in
the sunken, timber-ceilinged library. Later
modifications to the library covered up
the handsome herringbone patterned tile
floor, lowered the ceiling, added shelves
that all but hid the fireplace, and removed
gothic arched alcoves framing the
12x14 foot Italian landscape oil painting
commissioned for Nichols School in the
late 1920s. A pamphlet accompanying the
1929 Nichols School Opening noted that
the painting, entitled The Grand Canal
with Santa Maria della Salute, was painted
in Paris expressly for Nichols School.
Children in Nichols Middle School learn in a richly
historic environment. The Venetian Gothic building
was inspired by the Doge’s Palace in Venice, Italy,
with Gothic arches, leaded glass windows and
ceramic tiles that tell the story of Don Quixote.
Photos by Mary Mumbrue and Judy Chiss
Although the library lost some of its grandeur during
“modernization” initiatives in the 1950s and later, it still
has vestiges of Frederick Nichols’ vision. Nichols School
Principal, Sarah Mendez, said, “I feel privileged to work in a
school with such a rich art tradition. The Nichols community
is working now to raise money to restore the library to its
original state.” Ms. Mendez explained that fundraising
initiatives such as Nickels for Nichols and Nichols Taste of
Evanston support the library project.
In its “glory days,” Nichols School displayed an impressive
collection of fine art. Students studied, took tests, walked
the halls, ate lunch, and played musical instruments, and
socialized surrounded by noteworthy art. During the 1950s,
the school housed oil-painted panels, framed murals,
tapestries, framed oil paintings, original art
prints, watercolor paintings, rare-tile benches,
marble sculpture, and hand-painted tiles inset
in stairway walls – totaling more than 125
original pieces of art! Much of the known detail
about the art in Nichols School is available
because of a document commissioned by
Evanston’s Public Art Committee in 2005. Art
historians, Margharita Andreotti and Christine
Bell and public art activist and videographer,
Nancy Flannery – all long-time Evanston
residents -- were the sleuths and authors of the
Preliminary Survey of Historic Art in Evanston
Schools (2007). Their research uncovered
appraisal documents for some of the art in
Nichols, and just three of the current works
of art currently in the school were valued for
$100,850 in 1997.
Walking through the dark wood front
doors of Nichols Middle School today
is a bit like time travel to an era when
aesthetics trumped functionality. The
entry hall, narrow by today’s school
standards, still has its original patterned
Italian tile floor and walls. The vaulted
arch ceiling retains its painted stars that
were inspired by a church in Assisi, Italy,
where Frederick Nichols had traveled.
An ornamental metal gate can close off
the two facing narrow stairs connecting
the school’s entry hall to the second floor
auditorium mezzanine, and everyone
using those stairs passes before a
classically robed statue of a woman that is now protected
by a Plexiglas-covered alcove in the stairwell. Natural light
comes through the Gothic lancet arch windows on the
stairways to provide splashes of light in the otherwise dimly
lit front entryway of Nichols. People looking closely can
admire the antique stained glass that’s been inset into the
diamond-patterned glass panes.
Other remarkable art and architectural features still exist
throughout Nichols. Although skylights have been covered
up, porthole windows still add light and interest to the fourth
floor corridor. Large old-fashioned pedal operated, troughlike water fountains are stationed outside of bathrooms; and
glass-fronted diorama cases that formerly displayed WPA
(federally funded Works Progress Administration) art from
the 1930s or 1940s have survived. The current school office
displays a colorful wall-sized mural on canvas. The outdoor
scene, referred to in the 2007 Preliminary Art Survey as
Town Meeting, shows a kind of civic gathering of coloniallydressed people. The mural is both unsigned and undated
(and may have been reduced in size to accommodate
renovation of the room in the 1950s) but has been
conjectured to be another WPA era piece of art.
Tile was used profusely in the interior of Nichols School,
much of it procured by Mr. Nichols during his travels
to Europe. The cafeteria walls are still decorated with
dozens of blue and white Delft (from the Netherlands) tiles
original to the building; but particularly significant are the
approximately fifty colorful glazed tiles inset into the tile
stairway walls of Nichols. Each tile is part of a narrative
collection that visually “tells” the story of Don Quixote. In
the beautiful representation of the Man of La Mancha tale,
observers can see the Spanish countryside; Don Quixote on
his horse, Rocinante; the hero’s side-kick, Sancho; and a host
of other characters and events from the early seventeenth
century novel by Cervantes.
Mysteriously missing from Nichols School today are two
historically significant and important tile installations that
had been part of the Industrial Arts room at the time of
their 1944 installation. It’s unlikely that students changing
their drill bits or varnishing their bookends knew they were
working in the presence of valuable art pieces, but indeed
they were. One ornamental tile installation was created by
British artist, William Morris, founder of
the Arts and Craft movement; the other
was made by equally famous British artist,
Walter Crane, who was widely known for
book illustration in the Arts and Craft style.
Both his and William Morris’ tile installations
had been made for the 1889 Paris
Expedition and then were subsequently
displayed at the Chicago Columbian
Exposition before being acquired years
later by Mr. Nichols.
While there is written evidence of the
existence of the two pieces (Chicago Sun
Times article of May 21, 1944), there is no
proof of how the tile art disappeared.
Equally puzzling is the disappearance of three oil murals
painted by noted African-American artist, Archibald
John Motley. According to the art survey authored by art
historian, Margharita Andreotti and her two colleagues, it is
likely that the three oil murals depicting African-American
children were installed in the school’s music room. From
written records confirm that one 2’x19’ mural was dated
1936; but there is no knowledge of what happened to it or
to the other murals. Today Mr. Motley’s work (the artist died
in 1981) is sought by major museums, and the Art Institute
of Chicago owns several of his paintings.
Another unsolved puzzle is the disappearance of two
91/2” x 6” murals that formerly flanked the entry door to
the auditorium. They were painted by artist Carl Scheffler,
who was art director of the Evanston schools for eighteen
years and a WPA artist.
Superintendent Nichols had an enormous impact on the
development of the schools in Evanston during his lengthy
tenure. Under Mr. Nichols the school district grew from
a single school (Lincoln) and 250 students to five schools
and three thousand students. He traveled in summers
and regularly brought home art to enhance the Evanston
schools. On occasion he gave travel lectures and donated his
speaking fees to the District’s art fund. Beyond his retirement,
he retained workshop space in Nichols School basement,
where he made and donated benches, tables, and wall panels
from the rare Persian, Spanish, and Italian tiles he’d collected.
Photographs of Frederick W. Nichols reveal a man small in
stature, but his legacy has been monumental. n
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Sweet Bygones
By Kathleen Ratteree
Orange Crush
Orange Crush, the soda with real bits of
orange pulp once sold in brown, ribbed
bottles (to protect the flavor), was bottled
right here in Evanston. From the 1960s
to the early 1980s Crush International
offices and a bottling plant operated from
a square limestone building at 2201 Main
St., in an industrial area at the western end
of the City.
The building now houses Extended
Care Clinical, a nursing home consulting
firm. Visitors to the Extended Care offices
today can still see vintage Orange Crush
Nabisco
ZuZus, Mallows and
Uneeda Biscuits are all
products of Nabisco which,
until a few decades ago,
may have had a touch of
Evanston. The only Nabisco
shop devoted exclusively to
manufacturing (others were
maintenance shops) was
located at 601 Linden Place
and made ovens, mixers,
beaters, molds for ice-cream
cones and other equipment
used in the mass production of Nabisco treats.
Nabisco purchased the original factory, previously the
Roth McMahon Baking Machinery company, in 1899 as
it consolidated several small bakeries into the National
Biscuit Company. The present building was constructed
in 1925.
During World War II, the shop performed only maintenance work for Nabisco and turned to manufacturing for
the war, making shafts for Westinghouse’s airplane motors,
cutters for ration biscuits and boiler supports for Navy ships.
Perhaps some Oreos, Fig Newtons, or Ritz crackers from
Evanston-made ovens (some of which are still in use) make
their way back to the building, renovated in the 1990s as
the New Biscuit Lofts.
Adaptive Re-use …
Adaptive re-use, called a compromise between
preservation and demolition, allowed these
buildings to take on new life after their industrial
use lapsed. The names New Biscuit Lofts and
Peacock Lofts give a wink to their previous uses,
while the lobby of the third one holds memorabilia
of the still popular Crush drinks.
bottles and posters in the lobby. These
posters, commissioned in 1921, are of Norman
Rockwell illustrations done in an orange-black,
two-tone technique. Mr. Rockwell’s contract
with the Orange Crush Company was the only
contract he ever accepted for advertising
work.
According to the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group,
current owners of Orange Crush, chemist J.M.
Thompson of Chicago created the drink in
1906. In 1916 Clayton J. Howell partnered with
Neil C. Ward to create “Ward’s Orange Crush”
and the Orange Crush Company. The “crush”
indicated the process of extracting oils from oranges. Actual
bits of orange pulp were part of the original formula until
the 1930s, when they were dropped from the mixture.
Peacock’s
Ice Cream
From the 1950s until about
1992, some of the country’s best
ice cream was manufactured in a
modest factory on north Ashland
Avenue. Evanstonian George
Bugelas purchased the Peacock
Ice Cream company in 1957 –
he already owned half.
Mr. Bugelas was a stickler for
using only natural ingredients.
“Peacock’s aims for the quality market, not the price market,”
Mr. Bugelas said in a 1986 interview in The Rotarian. For 13
years, Peacock’s chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice creams
won blue ribbons at the Illinois State Fair.
Mr. Bugelas added two stores to the three he purchased,
and these became ice cream parlors, selling shakes, sundaes
and cones in addition to take-home packages. In its heyday,
Peacock’s Ice Cream was considered the largest retailer of ice
cream in the country, with each of its five shops selling about
50,000 gallons per year.
“He used to say he could make the finest ice cream
possible and everyone can afford that kind of treat. … it
was accessible happiness,” said Cleopatra Alexander in her
father’s obituary in the Chicago Tribune in 2004. He was so
proud of his product, she said, that he closed the company
“rather than risk selling it to someone who might dilute the
quality of his ice cream.”
Renaissance Realty and Construction rehabbed the
property, transforming it into Peacock Lofts, and in 2001 John
Leineweber of Renaissance Realty received Design Evanston’s
adaptive reuse design award for his renovation of the ice
cream factory.
Sweetness and Light:
The Battle to Claim
The Ice Cream Sundae
By Kathleen Ratteree
The contender: Evanston
Though half a dozen towns claim the sundae
as their own, a famous story traces the name
“sundae” to Evanston in contravention of Illinois’
“blue laws,” which prohibited the consumption
of ice cream on Sundays. However, according to
the Evanston Public Library, it was the selling of soda
water, not ice cream, that was outlawed on Sundays.
The sundae was reportedly originated by William
Garwood of Garwoods’ Drugstore, 438 Davis St., as an
ice cream soda minus the soda, leaving only ice cream
and syrup. The concoction was spelled “sundae” to avoid
offending religious sensibilities. The Evanston Women’s
Christian Temperance Union championed it as a pleasant
alternative to alcoholic drinks. Today, the Evanston
Historical Society hosts an annual ice cream social each
summer in salute to this most ingenious concoction.
The first pretender: Two Rivers, Wis.
Visitors to Two Rivers are greeted with an historic
marker dedicated to the sundae. The story goes this way:
On a Sunday in 1881, George Hallauer asked Edward C.
Berners, the owner of a soda fountain at 1404 15th St.,
to top a dish of ice cream with chocolate sauce, hitherto
used only for ice cream sodas. Mr. Berners thought the
topping would “ruin the flavor of the ice cream.” He
humored his friend, and soon the concoction became
very popular on the one day of the week (Sunday) it was
sold. After a 10-year-old girl insisted she have a dish of ice
cream “with that stuff on top,” the five-cent confection
was sold every day in many flavors.
The town cites two pieces of evidence in its claim as the
originator of the sundae: first, a 1929 Two Rivers Reporter
interview with Mr. Berners, who says he “protested”
when Hallauer made his strange request. Second, H. L.
Mencken, researching the suffix “dae,” wrote that the
“most plausible of their theories ascribes the
introduction of the ‘sundae’ itself to George
Hallauer and the invention of its name to George
Giffy, a competitor of Mr. Berners from nearby
Manitowoc, Wis.”
Visitors can still enjoy ice cream sundaes at a replica
of Berners Ice Cream Parlor at 1622 Jefferson St. At
the annual Sundae Thursday festival in June, visitors
may hear Two Rivers natives singing their “Sundae
Fight Song” to the tune of “On Wisconsin”: “On Two
Rivers! On Wisconsin. It’s with pride we burst.
As we shout out to the whole world: Ed was first!”
The second pretender: Ithaca, N.Y.
Ithaca disregards Two Rivers and Evanston, stating
that its own Chester Platt invented the cherry sundae in
1892. Mr. Platt reportedly prepared a dish of vanilla ice
cream with cherry syrup and a candied cherry for the
Reverend John Scott on a Sunday. Reverend Scott named
the dish after the day. The Ithaca story has the most solid
historical basis: an April 5, 1892, Ithaca Daily Journal
advertisement for “Cherry Sunday” served at the Platt
& Colt’s drugstore, along with a ledger of the drugstore
showing that all the ingredients were indeed in the store
at the time of the invention.
In 2006, continuing the sparring match that had gone
on since the 1970s, Two Rivers sent Ithaca a City Council
resolution along with postcards to its mayor formally
challenging Ithaca. Two Rivers obligingly sent the Ithaca
Mayor an inflatable plastic cow along with the words: “A
cow to go along with all the bull Ithaca has been dishing.”
An Evanston paper, in response to Ithaca’s claims,
wrote: “While Ithaca may have had the sundae as
early as 1897 [sic], as the chamber of commerce there
claims, it obviously got there by two means: Either some
Northwestern student brought it home with him or a
Cornell student from Evanston took it there.”
It is bittersweet for an Evanston native and Wisconsin
resident to report that Ithaca gets the prize for oldest
written record, but at least she may eat the results.
Disclaimer: The reporter, an Evanston native now residing in northeastern Wisconsin, has divided loyalties and a milkshake
riding on the results of this investigation. Still, she hopes this piece is both pleasing and instructive.
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sources consulted
The writers consulted the following
sources for their stories:
Books
“Building the Canal to Save Chicago.”
Richard Lanyon, Xlibris Corp. 2012.
“Chicago: Its History and Its Builders,
A Century of Marvelous Growth,” Vol.2.
J. Seymour Currey, J.J. Clarke Publishing
Company, 1914.
“The Chicago River: A Natural and
Unnatural History.” Libby Hill, Lake
Claremont Press, Chicago, 2000.
“Classic Country Estates of Lake Forest:
Architecture and Landscape Design 18561940.” Kim Coventry, Daniel Meyer and
Arthur H. Miller, W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.,
2003.
“A Classic Town: The Story of
Evanston.” Francis E. Willard, Women’s
Temperance Publishing Association,
Chicago, 1891.
“Downtown Evanston Revitalized:
1956-2006.” Robert B. Teska, 2007.
“Evanstoniana: An Informal History of
Evanston & Its Architecture.” Margery
Blair Perkins; compiled and edited by
Barbara J. Buchbinder-Green, Evanston
Historical Society, Chicago Review,
Chicago, 1984.
“Evanston: Its land and Its People.”
Viola Crouch Reeling, Daughters of
the American Revolution, Illinois, Fort
Dearborn Chapter, Evanston, Ill.,1928.
“History of Northwestern and
Evanston.” Edited by Robert Dickinson
Sheppard and Harvey B. Hurd, Munsell
Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906.
“History Just Ahead: Guide To
Wisconsin’s Historical Markers.” Sarah
Davis McBride (editor), State Historical
Society of Wisconsin Pres, 1999.
“A Place We Can Call Our Home.”
Morris (“Dino”) Robinson Jr., Shorefront
Legacy Center, 1997.
“Places of Their Own: African American
Suburbanization in the Twentieth Century.”
Andrew Wiese, The University of Chicago
Press, 2004.
“Plan of Evanston: Small Parks and
Playground Association.” D.H. Burnham,
Dwight H. Perkins, Thomas Tallmadge,
Hubert Burnham, Bowman Publishing
Company, Evanston, Illinois, 1917.
“Population Growth and Its Demands
Upon Land for Housing in Evanston,
Illinois.” Albert Greene Hinman, Evanston
News-Index, 1931.
Articles, Newspapers,
Planning Documents
“Black Housing, White Finance: African
American Housing and Home Ownership
in Evanston, Illinois, Before 1940.” Andrew
Wiese, Journal of Social History, 1999.
“Consolidated Plan 2010-2014.”
Adopted by the Evanston City Council,
Jan. 11, 2010.
“Downtown Evanston Plan Update.”
Adopted by the Evanston City Council,
Feb. 9, 2009.
“An Emperor of Ice Cream.” Charles
W. Pratt, “The Rotarian,” Vol. 149, No. 2.,
1986.
“Evanston Comprehensive General
Plan.” Adopted by Evanston City Council,
May 8, 2000.
Evanston Review. Issues dated Dec. 29,
1938; May 7, 1953; July 23, 1953, Aug. 6,
1953; Apr. 23, 1963.
“History of the Ice Cream Sundae.”
Richard Lloyd Jones, “Tulsa Tribune,”
Evanston Public Library http://www.
icecreamsundae.com/ithacasgift.htm/
“Journal of the American Water Works
Association.” Vol., 2, 1915.
“Land Use (Part 1) The Source Book on
the Comprehensive General Plan. Living
Areas Working Areas, Institutional Areas.”
City of Evanston, Ill. 1972.
“Mark Times,” published monthly by
employees: May 1950, Jan. 1955, Oct.
1958.
“National Register of Historic
Places Inventory – Nomination Form
for Suburban Apartment Buildings in
Evanston, Ill.”
“Origins of the Ice Cream Sundae.”
Evanston Public Library.
“Voyageur.” Northeast Wisconsin’s
Historical Review, Vol. 29, No. 1, Summer/
Fall 2012.
Obituaries of George Bugelas: Chicago
Tribune, Oct. 4, 2004; Chicago Sun-Times,
Oct. 7, 2004.
Websites
“History/Water – City of Evanston”:
www.cityofevanston.org/utilities/waterdivision/history/ 1874-1999.
“The CTA Takes Over: (1947-1970)
Resurrection Through Modernization;”
“The Early Years: (1888-1913) The Original
“L” Lines;” “Unification and the Subways
(1913-1947) The CER and CRT Centralize
“L” Operations.” Chicago-L.org/
“The Devil’s Carriage Comes to
Heavenston;” “Elevating the Elevated;”
“Evanston’s Second Railroad;” “The
Interurban Era.” www.trainweb.org/
evrailfan/
“Historical Architectural Research.”
Rebecca L. Hunter, www.kithouse.org
“Marktown Historic District.” Marktown
Preservation Society, http://www.
marktown.org/
North Shore Line: “History:
1910-1919;” “History: 1920-1929;”
“History: 1930-1939;” “History: 19401949;” “History: 1950-1963.” www.
northshoreline.com/
“Images of Sears Homes,” including
National Sears Home Registry, www.
searsarchives.com/homes
Chicago and NW Depot at Davis, early 1900s. Photo from the J.J. Sedelmaier Collection.
We’re making waves in Evanston
Locations, specialties and the most
responsive, expert healthcare are
available right here in Evanston.
Our Evanston offices are home to exceptional care
and physician expertise close to where you live.
• Expert care—skilled physicians offer responsive and
supportive care
• Availability—walk-in visits, convenient early morning, evening
and weekend hours, with some locations open seven days
a week
• Online access—schedule appointments, renew prescriptions,
pay your bill and stay connected with your physician and
an entire network of specialists—right at your fingertips
Medical Group
To schedule an appointment, visit
northshore.org/medicalgroup or
call (847) 733-5707:
Medical Group Offices
909 Davis Street
Internal Medicine, Family Medicine,
Pediatrics
1007 Church Street
Internal Medicine
1000 Central Street
Internal Medicine, OB/GYN, Pediatrics
NorthShore Evanston Hospital
2650 Ridge Avenue
(847) 570-2000
what’s new in Downtown evanston
It’s Thursday!
Let’s
DAnce!
Thursdays
June 20 — August 1
(excluding July 4)
Festivities at
909 Davis
Street Plaza
(at Church St.
& Maple Ave.)
6:00pm
Dance Lesson
7:00–9:00pm
Live Music
& Dancing
THE EVANSTON
SIDeWALK SALe
+ ARTWALK
FREE
PARKING!
Downtown Evanston
Farmers’ Market
enjoy the bounty of Midwest farmers
every Saturday throughout the summer!
Saturdays, May 4 – November 2, 2013
from 7:30am to 1:00pm
at the Intersection of University Place and
Oak Avenue, Behind the Hilton Garden Inn
www.cityofevanston.org/market
For more information visit
evanston_roundtable_summer_ad_apr2013_v1.indd 1
4/17/13 10:15 PM

T he City We Built 1863-2013

Transcription

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