Seeing beyond Glen Ellyn's Present

Most residents know the Glen Ellyn they see every day, but may not know much about its colorful past or its promising future.

The Glen Ellyn Women’s Club upcoming meeting will shed some light on the goals and plans for History Park from Jane Rio, interim executive director of the Glen Ellyn Historical Society, and some history from longtime resident Dan Anderson who wrote the book, 24 Tales of Murder, Mayhem, Infidelity, Pranks and other Intriguing Tidbits of Glen Ellyn History.

The meeting will be held 1 to 3 p.m., Tuesday, April 5 at the Glen Ellyn History Center, 800 N. Main St.

Jean Jeske, a club board member and a Glen Ellyn Historical Society member, said the club plans its programming a year in advance, welcoming speakers from the  Illinois Fine Arts Council, the Illinois Humanities Council and the State of Illinois. Referring to History Park, Jeske said, it was created several years ago to include the corner of Geneva and Main. The linchpin is the restored Stacy’s Tavern Museum, which has been open since 1968.

“We’re going to be talking about the development of the corner,” she said. “There was a business building on the corner of Geneva and Main, and it has been torn down. A landscaped park area is now being developed and it will have its dedication this summer.”

This grassy area, located east of the museum, will have lights, benches and a winding path. Jeske said Rio will explain that a house, which is immediately to the left of the museum, will be razed and developed into a lawn.

“Right now, the Historical Society does not have any money to continue further,” Jeske said. “We used up all our money.”

Anderson’s book spotlights the village’s more interesting historical aspects. His foundation for the book came from a published series of 100 articles covering the village’s history. He and his business colleague Anne Balogh, also a Glen Ellyn resident, wrote the articles which appeared in the Glen Ellyn Sun from 2007 to 2009.

“When people commented on these articles, they said ‘I hope that you’re going to make a book out of them,’” Anderson said. “It seemed like an obvious idea.”

From the 100 articles, he chose 24 stories he thought would interest readers. The book came out two years ago.

“The book is really a series of articles without a particular thread running through them except that they emphasize the more human interest side of our history,” he said. “It’s not just a chronology but stories that are fun to read.”

Anderson, who was involved in the remodeling of the front portion of the History Center of Stacy’s Corners Store, will devote his talk to the rise and fall of the village’s downtown shopping district. One phenomenon that has affected many downtown areas is the debut of the regional shopping center, he explained. In the 1960s, some developers asked the village about building such a center at the south end.

“Our village fathers and mothers, in their not-so infinite wisdom, said ‘No, we don’t want you to do that because if you build your regional shopping center there, it will suck all the life out of our retail establishments downtown. These developers said ‘O.K.’ and went one suburb east to Lombard. Lombard representatives said ‘Sure, go ahead and build it here.’ That became Yorktown Shopping Center. When Yorktown opened in 1968, it was for a brief period, the largest regional shopping center in America.

“The village leaders were right in the sense that it would suck the life out of downtown Glen Ellyn, but Lombard got all the sales tax revenue from having that very prosperous shopping center. We really blew it. It was going to affect our downtown either way. I think it’s a good example of how the best of intentions can produce unintended consequences.”

Another piece of history is the building, which is home to The Bookstore on Main Street and once housed McChesney & Miller’s Grocery and Market.

“McChesney’s was founded as a grocery store in 1862,” Anderson said. “It’s been owned and operated by a McChesney or a Miller ever since then. It’s quite an amazing history.”