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North Aurora: 1834-1940 is a quintessential study of what happened when settlers arrived in the Midwest in the 1830s. The village's location on the Fox River provided plentiful trees and waterpower for sawmills. Soon other mills, smelting works, a packing plant, a door-sash-blind factory, and a creamery all came to town. The village's railroad enabled its Boswell Cheese Factory to ship cream cheese to England in 1877. By 1922, North Aurora had
...Prairie Avenue evolved into Chicago's most exclusive residential street during the last three decades of the 19th century.
Chicago's wealthiest citizens—Marshall Field, Philip Armour, and George Pullman—were soon joined by dozens of Chicago's business, social, and civic leaders, establishing a neighborhood that the Chicago Herald proclaimed a cluster of millionaires not to be matched for numbers anywhere else in the
...5) Bolingbrook
9) Berwyn
Eight miles west of downtown Chicago sits a suburb with a rich, vibrant history. Berwyn began in the 19th century as two separate communities with vast stretches of marshland and farmland between. By the early 1900s, this booming municipality successfully kept industry at bay while remaining a strictly residential development. As thousands of bungalows were constructed in the 1920s, the "City of Homes," as it was known, became the fastest-growing
...10) Chicago Heights
Chicago Heights is a multicultural tableau, depicting the story of nineteenth-century pioneers and twentieth-century workers who built one of the most vibrant of the small, industrial cities of the Midwest. The exciting collection featured here is a result of an intensive city-wide campaign to identify the very best photographs of old Chicago Heights.
About half came from the extensive collections of the Public Library and the Historical Society,
...11) Chicago blues
Blues was once described as the devil's music. It eventually became some of the most beloved American music that was embraced by a global audience. Originating in African American communities in the South in the late 1800s, it was inspired by gospel and spiritual music sung by field hands and sharecroppers who worked on plantations. During the Great Migration from the early 1900s to the mid-1970s, many African Americans moved north for a better
...12) Alsip
The village of Alsip got its name from the area's first big business, Frank Alsip's Brickyard. Although Alsip is now known for its tight-knit neighborhoods and large industrial community, it was not always so. Recorded area history goes back to the 1600s, when a Catholic mission stood at 122nd and Loveland Streets, and the first European settlers began farming the area in the 1800s. The historic farmhouse featured on the front cover was homesteaded
...13) Matteson
The village of Matteson was founded in 1855 and named after the 10th governor of Illinois, Joel Matteson. German immigrants were the area's first settlers, seeking agriculture and business opportunities. The Illinois Central and Michigan Central Railroads provided the stimulus for the growth of one of the first communities to the south of Chicago. The area became popular in the 1890s, when Chicago residents rode special trains to visit the amusement
...14) Joliet
In vivid historical images and rare archival documents, see for yourself how Joliet became a quintessential American City.
Joliet once was a lush prairie bordered with scenic bluffs along the Des Plaines River. In the late 19th century, settlers and a large influx of Eastern European immigrants arrived, transforming the area into a bustling industrial community of steel, limestone, manufacturing, and transportation. In the 20th
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