While the slots at the Des Plaines casino started paying off earlier this week, it's far from the first time slots have played in the Northwest suburbs or even in Des Plaines. Although slot machines and other forms of gambling were banned in Illinois and Cook County before the turn of the century, they remained relatively easy to find, aided in large part by organized crime and the fact that Illinois was a center of slot manufacturing. By 1926, slot machines became prevalent in many of the roadhouses and taverns in the undeveloped 'boonies' of suburban Chicago. While places like Cicero, …

This year, for the first time since 1990, there will be no Fourth of July fireworks in Des Plaines. Not counting rain delays. From 1990-1994 the Jaycees held fireworks at Maryville, then moved to Oakton Community College, where the Special Events Commission took over, until their funding was cut off this year. It's not the first time your regularly scheduled pyrotechnic service has been interrupted. There were no fireworks for thirteen years, from 1977-1989, due to raucous overcrowding at the bicentennial celebration at Lake Park, where the fireworks had been held since 1967. There were plans…

One of downtown's more creative buildings sits at the corner of Graceland and Lee Streets. It's odd in several regards. It's one of the younger buildings downtown, built in 1981. It's among several buildings in Des Plaines designed by Frank Lloyd Wright protege Arthur Dennis Stevens. It has a tiny parking lot. It's four stories tall but barely higher than the neighboring Jewel Building But the most unusual part is that it's effectively a pyramid, or at least a quarter of an eight-sided one. Its steeply pitched roof with a skylight down the middle creates a unique interior space. Stevens' …

As I write about each old building in Downtown Des Plaines, I try to find an interesting story or angle to them. Sometimes, it's elusive. These two buildings are among those elusive ones. Constructed in the late 1930s and early 1940s, they are difficult to find information on, not least because the records are scarce in that era. Many of the Des Plaines newspapers were destroyed before making it to microfilm. Not much else was being built in the city, because of the depression and war. My usual sources don't offer much help. It is clear that after Ellinwood was extended to Graceland Street at…

While the people of Des Plaines have been intently focused on the rehabilitation of the Des Plaines Theatre since work started in October, a major transformation has been quietly taking place just across the street, at the old Des Plaines Masonic Temple building. Downtown Des Plaines will soon have both a small and a large theatre.  The three-story Beaux Arts style Temple Building was built in 1924 by the Des Plaines Masonic Lodge 890, for use by itself and various other fraternal organizations, including the Lions Club. It was the largest building in Des Plaines at the time. The architect …

Although Des Plaines expanded enormously in the 1920s, its recreational facilities had not. The Forest Preserve began during that decade, and there were a few fields, such as Earle Field (now the site of Central School), Northwestern Park, and the parks straddling the railroad track, but a real need was felt for more spaces. By 1929, a particular desire was felt for a public pool. Some citizens swam in the Des Plaines River near the bridge and later up north at Dam No. 2; there were pools at the old and new Maine High School, and a pool was built at the Methodist Campground, but these …

We take supermarkets for granted today, but it's easy to forget that they're a fairly recent invention. The downtown building now occupied by Gift Depot was built in 1948 as a Jewel Food Store. Like most early Jewel stores, it was faced in plain white glazed terra cotta with a maroon base, with white suggesting the cleanliness and modernity of their stores, among the pioneers of self-service grocery. Their earliest stores, like the one opened in 1935 farther down Ellinwood Street next to Woolworth, had architectural accents to resemble tiny Greek temples. Over time, the Art Deco and …

It's hard to understate the importance of railroads to the development of Des Plaines - anyone who's regularly stopped at crossings can attest to that. It was the railroad station, borrowing its name from the river, that caused the town to change its name to Des Plaines. It was the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad (starting as the Illinois & Wisconsin) that brought the first development to the loose conglomerate of farms, and dictated the orientation of the street grid. It was the railroad that made travel to downtown Chicago quick, leading to residential development. And the port of all …

By the late 1920s, Des Plaines and its surrounding suburbs had booming populations. At the same time, a new menace began stalking the formerly quiet streets: the affordable priced automobile. Before there were widespread streetlights, traffic signals, crumple zones, or the myriad safety devices we now take for granted, automobile accidents were even more dangerous. People who grew up without busy highways and automobiles were less accustomed to watching out for them, drivers often lacked knowledge of the rules of the road, and the cars themselves were less reliable. It's unsurprising that the…

If you're a regular reader of this column, you might wonder how there can be so many old pictures of one place through the years. Many of these pictures are taken from postcards. Today, you'd be hard-pressed to find a new postcard of Des Plaines outside the Des Plaines History Center. But in their time, postcards were a popular form of communication - the text messages of their day, or as souvenirs before cameras and developing were cheap. And today they are a valuable record of their time, often conveniently dated with a cancellation stamp. While people might often think of old postcards as …

In 1928, with the old church operating at capacity, the First Congregational Church of Des Plaines broke ground for a new, far larger facility one block away, at the corner of Graceland & Marion Streets. The new church would be designed by the prominent Chicago architectural firm of Pond & Pond, Martin & Lloyd. Brothers Irving K. & Allen B. Pond were nationally noted progressive architects; Irving, the elder brother, started his career working under William LeBaron Jenney, father of the American skyscraper, and Solon S. Beman. In contrast to more famed progressive architects of the era like …

This week, with spring rapidly approaching, Earth Day just passed, and Arbor Day just ahead, our thoughts turn to the greener things. Trees and landscaping have long been an important part of our historic city. Des Plaines's earliest park land straddled either side of the Chicago & Northwestern tracks downtown. At the beginning, this was little more than a mass of scrubby trees and shrubs and a lawn. In the 1910s, efforts by the Des Plaines Women's Club transformed the land around the old library with help from landscape designer Ransom Kennicott. Soon after, the park around the tracks began …

One of the oldest buildings in Des Plaines remains in use today as the home of Des Plaines Masonic Lodge #890. This building has seen many changes inside, outside, and all around it since it was built in 1871-1872 as the First Congregational Church.The second organized church in Des Plaines, First Congregational was formed in 1869, first meeting at the Simeon Lee house. The church lot at Graceland and Prairie was donated by sub-divider Alfred Parsons. The building was overseen by Mr. Franklin Whitcomb of the Whitcomb brickyard (the clay pits of which now form Shagbark Lake), who also donated …

Since Patch this week featured a new downtown business, this week's Going Back Downtown is going to detour outside the confines of old Des Plaines to the Elmhurst strip, on the very border of the city. T-Bob's Smoked Bar-B-Q opened last month in the former Dairy Queen at 1165 S. Elmhurst. Having recently spent the better part of two years living in Georgia, I have become afflicted with a craving for good Bar-B-Q. Until now, that just hasn't been something you could find around these parts, and has necessitated a drive into the city.  Into this void T-Bob's has emerged. Unlike many of its …

It was 1892, and Des Plaines was swelling with civic pride. It had installed its first plank sidewalks that year, and on September 22, the first Village Hall would be dedicated (where American Mattress now stands at Ellinwood and Lee). At the same time, the treasury dwindled to $64.82 in 1893. In August 1892, an octagonal bandstand with a 6' platform was built for the Des Plaines Band on that otherwise useless triangle of land; it was a place the community could gather. It stood there until the 1920s. The landscape has changed a lot since then; each of the streets has dramatically changed. …

Today's Des Plaines Library Building is an impressive monument in the heart of our city. It has come a long way from humble beginnings. At the turn of the century, the need for a public library was acutely felt. There was a referendum held in 1896 calling for a library, but it was defeated by a 3:1 margin. To give you an idea just how small the community was at that time, this was only a 142 to 50 vote. Starting in 1904, a group of citizens lead by Dr. Clarence A. Earle started a campaign to establish a library. Earle wrote to industrialist Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the world, who …

West Division School was the third school to open in District 62, following North Division School in 1874 and South Division (later Central) School in 1906. The community was in growth mode in 1923, with many homes built in the Des Plaines Manor subdivision north of Thacker Street and more soon to come in Des Plaines Gardens, south of Thacker between Lee, Algonquin, and Second Streets.The new school was designed by the architecture firm of Ashby, Ashby,and Schultze. This firm was unusual in that in addition to individualbuildings, it also specialized in the design of standard designs forhomes…

There are not too many houses in Des Plaines today that can be called a big country house. The most prominent of these is the stately, 100 year old E. A. Manuel house, commanding two acres on the corner of Rand Road and Elk Boulevard. The craftsman style home wasn’t on a corner at all when it was built; in fact, when Rand was widened and Elk was built in the late 1950s, it went right through the home’s tennis court. Dr. Edward Albert Manuel was a Milwaukee veterinarian before coming to Des Plaines in 1895. Reading of a livery and boarding stable for sale across from the depot, Manuel …

Early in the morning or late at night, there's one place you're likely to see buzzing with activity: the Sugar Bowl and Miner Street Tavern. Steve Morakalis and George Prassas took a leap of faith in 2009 and reopened the long-struggling and intermittently shuttered Sugar Bowl, one of our oldest businesses. The restaurant was nearly renamed "La Mellet," but after discovering how much the Sugar Bowl meant to Des Plaines, the pair chose to inherit a local favorite. They transformed it, redecorating and bringing in better food than the restaurant had served in many years. The attached Miner …

Besides the Post Office, there were several other New Deal artworks in Des Plaines. Three of these ended up at Central School, all painted in 1934: Foot of Randolph Street, a watercolor by Vincent D'Agonstino; View of Methodist Camp Ground Pool, a watercolor, and a tempera painting depicting a greenhouse, by Paul Stoddard. These were painted under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project within the Civil Works Administration (a pilot program for the WPA). PWAP was intended to put artists to work beautifying public buildings; while the program lasted just seven months, it funded 3,750 …