Fraus with Plows: The 19th Century Development of Skokie :: Essays Papers

Fraus with Plows The 19th hundred Development of SkokieOn the corner of Lake and Wagner roadstead in Glenview, nearby an Audi dealership, the Glenview Tennis Club, and an Avon plant, nestled between rows of residential developments, is an 18-acre farm. As if its presence wasnt anachronistic enough, the cows grazing in the heavens attest to the fact that the farm, which sits on the border between Chicagos self-christened North Shore and its inner suburbs, is still in operation in spite of decades of efforts by developers to purchase it and convert the land into something to a greater extent profitable for the northeast suburban niche. In fact, until 2000, the farm was owned by the Wagner family and run for profit, though it has since been purchased by the Glenview commonality District and is forthwith maintained as a museum to showcase the colonizations historical roots. The rationale behind the villages $7.2 million investment in the land was, as place District Board Presiden t said, ...that this is a part of Glenview, and if we dont acquire it, it wont be there to show the children what Glenview was like. In some ways, perhaps Wagner Farms presence is most fitting as a historical parting between the two sets of suburbs directly to the north of the city. While both regions began maturation simultaneously as outgrowths of the rapidly expanding and industrializing urban metropolis to the south, the lakeshore settlements were some immediately identified as centers to serve the needs of affluent urban commuters, and their subsequent development was largely directed towards this goal, whereas the inland settlements were abruptly rouse to their similar potential only in the real estate expand of the 1920s. The explosion of road and highway construction after WWII would eventually train the playing field for development between these competing areas and render their boundaries nearly indistinguishable, merely until then, towns like Glenview, Morton Grov e, Niles, Park Ridge, Lincolnwood, and Skokie (then known as Niles Center) , would develop along a very different trajectory than their lakeshore neighbors, one that had much more in common with Wagner Farm than with the elegant single-family homes arranged in well-maintained subdivisions that now surround it. The development of Niles Center in many ways embodies a regional pattern of suburban development in 19th Century Cook County. With the exception of a few showcase towns like Riverside, Hyde Park Center, and the settlements along