The RHS Facebook page is a rich archive of history-related posts by Carol Flynn, RHS Facebook admin and writer until mid-2025. Carol prolifically wrote a wide variety of meticulously researched local history articles for RHS. She continues to write for the Beverly Review and other media sources with articles particularly focused on local Ridge history.
2021
Ridge Historical Society
The First Chicago Christmas Tree – Part 4
By Carol Flynn
Chicago displayed its first municipal Christmas tree in 1913. This was the first time a giant tree lit with electric bulbs was displayed in a public space for everyone in the Chicagoland area to enjoy. A lavish lighting ceremony was held on Christmas Eve.
New York City displayed the first municipal tree in 1912, and Chicago, Boston, and other cities followed the next year. In Chicago, the Municipal Christmas Festival Association was formed to plan and manage the activities. The honorary president was Mayor Carter H. Harrison. There were over fifty honorary vice-presidents representing business and industry, civic associations, churches, newspapers, welfare and social agencies, and education. Amalie Hofer Jerome, from the Hofer family on the Ridge, represented the Civic Music Association. Artists including the famous sculptor Lorado Taft donated their design talent to create the display.
The tree was set up off of Michigan Avenue, just north of the Art Institute on land considered part of Grant Park then.
The tree was created from a 35-foot Douglas spruce mounted on a 40- foot base, covered by smaller trees, topped with a star of Bethlehem. The trees were donated by Frederick A. Jordan, of Roselawn, Michigan. He was the partner of the late Captain Herman Schuenemann, whose “Christmas Tree Ship” had gone down in Lake Michigan the year before while bringing trees to Chicago.
The tree was set in a 25-foot-tall arcade composed of arches and smaller Christmas trees, all lit with colored lights. Commonwealth Edison supplied the lights for the tree and arcade. Steam train engines from the Illinois Central Railroad were behind the arcades, blowing steam to create a special effect of fog. The tree was doused with water and frozen first, then slowly lit for a dramatic, icy effect.
A hospital station with volunteer doctors and nurses was set up to deal with injuries and lost children.
The lighting event on December 24th was almost curtailed by a blizzard earlier in the day. The streets were impassable and local transportation was impeded. Thousands of men poured out from lodging houses to help clear the snow – there was not enough work for all of those who showed up to help. The snow was soon cleared, and the event was able to go on as planned.
Thousands of free train tickets were made available for children so that families could come to the event, and over 100,000 people showed up.
The lighting ceremony started with a parade down Michigan Avenue, which included the police force and mounted Illinois National Guard cavalry. Speeches, and musical performances from a variety of sources, including the Chicago Grand Opera Company, followed, broadcast through huge megaphones. Motion pictures for children, mostly public safety features, were shown on a huge screen near the Art Institute.
Mayor Harrison pushed the button to illuminate the tree around 6:15 p.m., and the crowd gave out “lusty cheers.” The mayor’s speech was included in the record for the City Council. He stated that he hoped this would inaugurate a long series of celebrations for the city, and that the lights may serve as an inspiration to charity, the greatest of all virtues.
The festivities went on for several hours. There were a few minor glitches – the train engines, promised to be silent, were not, and drowned out some of the performances. The star of the opera who was promoted for the event was a no-show. Children were confused about the identity of Mayor Harrison – he was not fat enough to be Santa Claus.
The program was completed with the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner.
The police had assigned 250 men to detail the event. The officer in charge declared the crowd to be the “biggest, happiest, most cheerful, best and easiest handled” crowd he had seen.
The tree was illuminated nightly until the New Year.
The great success of this first tree led to the tradition that has now been going on for 108 years.
Image: The first Chicago Christmas Tree, 1913.
Next post: Some background information on early electrical technology in the City of Chicago.
The First Chicago Christmas Tree and the Ridge –
Part 3 – Amalie Hofer Jerome and the Civic Music Association
Amalie Hofer Jerome came from a distinguished family of educators, writers, musicians, and publishers that lived and ran a school on the Ridge. She was an honorary vice-president for the lighting of the first Chicago Christmas tree.
Amalie was born in 1863, the sixth of the eight Hofer children, the third of the five girls who all went into education and social reform. She was raised in McGregor, Iowa, and attended McGregor High School. Amalie had training as a kindergarten teacher with Elizabeth Harrison, a pioneer in early childhood education who established programs in Iowa and Chicago.
Amalie and her sisters became leaders in the kindergarten movement, which was covered in the previous post. She was the editor and publisher of the Kindergarten Magazine, the leading publication of the movement, and other related publications.
Moving to Chicago, she was involved in the kindergarten-training schools her sisters established, including serving as principal.
Her work with the kindergartens led her to become involved with many more causes.
This was the era of “settlement houses,” made most famous by Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago. These were institutions of the “Progressive reform era” in which social workers, clergy, educators, and other concerned people came together, often living together in the institution, to offer services to the poor, new immigrants, and others in need. They usually started with outreach to mothers and children, and established day care services, kindergartens, and playgrounds; English lessons; household training; and arts and crafts.
Amalie married Frank Jerome, a furniture merchant, in 1909. For several years, she was head resident of Fellowship House Social Settlement at 831 West 33rd Street, established in 1895. She resigned in 1916, but still stayed on the board, managing the settlement house activities.
Amalie was a founder of the International Kindergarten Union and the Playground Association of America. She traveled the world studying kindergartens and childhood education, and wrote articles and gave talks on the topics around the country.
In 1913, Amalie was a founder of the Civic Music Association in Chicago. For several years, free concerts had been given in the field houses of the city’s parks by notable musicians, and the time had come to organize the activities. As a leader of the Playground Association and also of the Chicago Woman’s Club, Amalie had been instrumental in arranging the concerts. She now took on the role of chairman of the executive committee of the new organization. Numerous groups, such as the Northwestern University choir and the Illinois Theater orchestra, provided free concerts in the parks.
Although she was recognized throughout Chicago for her many accomplishments, it was in her role as a leader of the Civic Music Association that Amalie was named one of the fifty-plus honorary vice-presidents for the lighting ceremony for Chicago’s first municipal Christmas tree.
Next post: Chicago’s First Christmas Tree
The First Chicago Christmas Tree and the Ridge –
Part 2 – The Kindergarten Movement and the Hofer Sisters
Amalie Hofer Jerome, from the Hofer family who lived on the Ridge, was an honorary vice president for the lighting ceremony for the first Chicago municipal Christmas tree displayed in 1913.
The Hofer family had three sons and five daughters.
The sons were mentioned in the previous post. The family had owned a newspaper in Iowa, and the sons all moved to Oregon and stayed in the newspaper and publishing business.
The five daughters in the family all went into education, writing and publishing, and social reform work. They were leaders in establishing kindergartens and training programs for kindergarten teachers. They were covered in a 2013 RHS newsletter, and those pages are presented here in jpeg form. A PDF version is also available that can be sent by Messenger upon request.
Next post: Amalie Hofer Jerome and the Civic Music Association
The First Chicago Christmas Tree and the Ridge – Part I – Revised
Chicago’s first municipal Christmas tree was displayed in 1913. For the first time, on Christmas Eve, viewers witnessed a giant tree ablaze with strands of electric light bulbs set up on Michigan Avenue. Ridge resident Amalie Hofer Jerome was named an honorary vice president for the lighting event.
RHS profiled the Hofer family in the Winter 2013 RHS newsletter, which focused on the beginnings of the kindergarten movement in the U.S. The Hofer sisters led the way in Chicago in the establishment of kindergartens and training programs for kindergarten teachers. And that was only one of their accomplishments.
These 2021 posts will cover more on the Hofers, and then feature the 1913 Christmas event.
The Hofer family came of age during the Progressive Era of the late 1800s – early 1900s, a time of widespread reform in just about every area of American life, from education to business to government. This will be explored when Amalie Hofer’s career is reviewed in an upcoming post.
Amalie’s father was Andreas Franz Xaver Hofer, born in 1821 in Baden, a historical territory in south Germany and north Switzerland. He took part in the unsuccessful Baden Revolution of 1848 – 49, an attempt to overthrow the ruling princes. Forced to flee the country, he came to New York City in 1849.
His future wife, Mari Ruef, was born in 1836 in Baden, and came to New York in 1852. There she met Hofer and they married in 1853. Hofer died in 1904 and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery on the Ridge. Mari moved to California where she died in 1918. Hofer’s remains were then brought from Chicago to California to be buried with her.
The Hofers moved to Iowa from New York. Hofer fought with the Iowa Infantry of the Union Army in the Civil War. They became naturalized citizens of the U.S.
The Hofers were farmers and dry goods merchants in McGregor, Iowa. Hofer became known as a local expert on cultivating grapes and was active in the Iowa State Horticulture Society. They purchased a local newspaper, the McGregor News, which they ran for many years. The family was well known in the community.
Hofer‘s philosophy for the newspaper was “closely identified with the interests of the people and with successful government,” according to an article written in 1904 by his sons. He was involved in local politics and a leader of the temperance movement. Many of the beer breweries in the U.S were owned by German immigrants, and the newspapers made note of the divide in the German community over the alcohol issue. Hofer wrote temperance tracts in the German language which were published by the German National Temperance Association.
He used the newspaper to advance his platforms and this did not always go over well with the subjects of his commentaries. In one court case that was followed closely by the public, the newspaper and its publishers, A. F. Hofer and Sons, were sued for $5,000 by a saloon keeper claiming the paper had damaged his character. The paper had accused the saloon keeper of keeping a gambling house. The saloon keeper was backed by the local liquor league. The case went to court, and the Hofers won the case – the charges against the saloon keeper were “fully sustained.”
The Hofers had eight children, five daughters and three sons. They were mostly self-educated, and as youths were all involved with the newspaper, leading to careers that included writing, editing, and publishing.
The family sold the McGregor News in 1890. By then, the sons, Ernest (1855-1934), Frank Xaver (1856-1905), and Andreas F., Jr., (1861-1913), who made the newspaper and publishing industries their lifetime careers, had moved to Salem, Oregon. “E.” and “A. F.” took over the Capital Journal, an evening paper. Ernest later ran the Industrial News Review, which advocated for “policies essential to the well-being of our country.” Frank owned half of one newspaper and was the founder of another.
In the 1890s, Mr. and Mrs. Hofer moved to Chicago from Iowa. They settled on the Ridge at 1833 W. 96th Street. In Chicago, they were surrounded by their daughters, who were educators and social activists.
Next post: The Kindergarten Movement and the Hofer sisters
Photograph: Andreas Franz and Mari Hofer and their eight children. User-submitted on Ancestry.com.
History of the Chicago Wards – Post 6Beginning a Chicago Wards Timeline for the Ridge; Early Aldermen for the Ridge
A timeline has been started for the history of the Chicago wards on the Ridge.
1889, June – Lake Township was annexed to the City of Chicago, which included the land north of 87th Street, east of Western Avenue, which today includes the northern part of Dan Ryan Woods. This land includes the northern tip of the Blue Island Ridge so the land is connected geographically to the Ridge even though it is not considered part of North Beverly and is not part of today’s 19th ward. At the time of annexation, the land was part of the Sherman Farm estate. This land formed part of the new 31st ward.
The first two aldermen for any part of the Ridge were Edwin J. Noble and Captain George F. McKnight, Republicans from the thirty-first ward.
1890, April – The land from 87th Street south to 95th Street, Western Avenue east to State Street, included in the Calumet Township, was annexed. It had been unincorporated land before that. The land included what today is known as North Beverly. It was assigned to the 31st ward.
1890, November – The land from 95th Street south to 107th Street, Western Avenue east to a zigzag alignment of streets, was annexed. The municipality had been incorporated as Washington Heights, and included today’s Beverly Hills.
1891, February – The annexed land of Washington Heights was added to the 31st ward.
1895, April – Isaiah T. Greenacre was elected the first alderman from the Ridge.
North Beverly and Washington Heights remained in the 31st ward until 1901, when population growth and shifts led to redistricting of the wards. The part of the 31st ward that included North Beverly and Washington Heights was split off into its own ward, and the renumbering of the city wards made this the 32nd ward. This will be covered in an upcoming post.
The aldermen of the 31st ward during the time it included North Beverly and Washington Heights, all Republican, were:
1889-1891: George McKnight
1889-1896: Edwin Noble
1891-1893: Edwin A. Plowman
1893-1895: James L. Francis
1895-1897: Isaiah T. Greenacre
1896-1898: Clark T. Northrop
1897-1899: Elliot W. Sproul
1898-1901: Joseph Badenoch
1899-1901: Henry F. Eidmann
McKnight, Noble and Plowman were covered in previous posts.
Francis was a prominent member of the city council’s special committee for the 1893 World’s Fair. He planned on seeking reelection in 1895 but he was ousted by the Republican “machine.” Later that year, Francis was charged with “boodling,” the term for various types of graft and corruption. He was accused of accepting cash and stock from the Mutual Electric Light and Power Company, located in Brainerd, in exchange for backing ordinances favorable to the company, charges he strongly denied.
Isaiah T. Greenacre was the first alderman elected from the Ridge. He played a considerable role in local, city, and state politics and he will be profiled in the next post.
Northrup was a prominent businessman who held the position of foreign representative with Smith and Co. before becoming a member of the Board of Trade. He had been a trustee for Lake Township.
Sproul was a contractor and builder. He later served in the U.S. House of Representatives as the Congressman from the 3rd District of Illinois from 1921 to 1931. This photo is of Elliot W. Sproul.
Next post: Isaiah T. Greenacre, first alderman elected from the Ridge.
History of the Chicago Wards – Post 5Washington Heights Joins the Chicago Ward Structure
In November of 1890, the annexation of the Village of Washington Heights to the City of Chicago became official. At the same time, the Village of West Roseland to the southeast of Washington Heights was also annexed.
The next step was for the Chicago city council to pass an ordinance approving the annexation and adding the land to the ward system.
In 1889, with the annexation of 125 square miles of land into the city, the wards had been reconfigured and new ones created. The total number of wards had increased from twenty-four to thirty-four. When the area now known as North Beverly between 87th Street and 95th Street was annexed earlier in 1890, it was added to the thirty-first ward.
The determination of wards and their boundaries was a constant battle between the Democrats and Republicans on the city council to influence the election of aldermen according to political party affiliation. In 1890, Mayor DeWitt Clinton Cregier and the majority of the city council were Democrats, but that had gone back and forth through the early history of the city.
By 1890, Cregier was the fifteenth Democratic mayor. There had been five Whig mayors, and after this party merged to create the Republican Party in the 1850s, nine more Republican mayors. There had been five mayors with other or no political party affiliations.
It was generally assumed that Washington Heights would become its own ward – the thirty-fifth ward – when it was annexed. This new ward might also include West Roseland, or that area would be incorporated into an existing ward.
However, Washington Heights was strongly Republican, and establishing it as a new ward would almost certainly result in the election of two new Republican aldermen, something the Democrats did not want. Mayor Cregier was in favor of adding Washington Heights and West Roseland to existing wards.
An ordinance was drafted calling for the creation of a new ward for Washington Heights, and submitted to the Judiciary Committee of the city council. At the same time, two other ordinances were also submitted, calling for Washington Heights to be assigned to the thirty-first ward, and West Roseland to the thirty-fourth ward.
Establishing the new ward was a contentious issue in the city council. One alderman was quoted as saying about the ordinance before the Judiciary Committee, “It will sleep the sleep that knows no waking.” This proved so. That ordinance died in committee, and the ordinances to assign the areas to existing wards were presented to the city council, and approved.
Washington Heights became part of the thirty-first ward on February 25, 1891. West Roseland became part of the thirty-fourth ward.
Election precincts had already been established in the interim. In addition to the regularly scheduled voter registration day for the entire city, a second day was arranged for the new Chicago residents to register to vote. The annual aldermanic election was scheduled for the first Tuesday in April.
The two aldermen of the thirty-first ward were Captain George F. McKnight and Edwin J. Noble. Both had just been elected the previous year when the ward was established. Both were Republicans and ran unopposed.
As reported in Post 4, Noble was a grain merchant and stock trader on the Chicago Board of Trade. McKnight had a wide background in business and founded the Lake Gas Company in Chicago.
On the city council, Noble was a member of the Licenses, Streets and Alleys South, and Elections committees. McKnight sat on the Wharfing Privileges, Local Assessments, and Health and County Relations committees.
Each new ward had elected two aldermen in 1890, and to fit the positions into the election cycle, one was elected for a two-year term, and the other for a one-year term. McKnight was elected for one-year, so he was up for re-election in 1891, but he decided not to run for a second term.
The first election as residents of Chicago that the Washington Heights/Beverly voters participated in was to elect a new alderman to replace McKnight. The regular Republican “machine,” and that term was used back then for both parties, nominated Edwin A. Plowman for the position. Plowman was chief of the abstracts department of the Cook County Recorder’s office. He had sought the alderman position in 1889 but lost the nomination to McKnight.
However, a faction of Republicans in the ward nominated A. C. Clarke, an insurance adjustor, known for taking stances that differed from the official Republican stances. Clarke insisted he was the official nominee from the Republican Party. Despite some very heated debates, the Republican party leadership prevailed, and Plowman was listed on the ballot as the Republican candidate. Clarke ran as an Independent. They were joined on the ballot by nominees from the Democratic and Socialist parties.
Plowman won the election, becoming the new alderman for the thirty-first ward, and he served for one term. The position of mayor was also on the ballot that year, and Cregier lost to the Republican candidate Hempstead Washburne.
Noble was elected several more times, and served as alderman for the thirty-first ward until 1896.
Next: The Thirty-first Ward up to 1914
History of the Chicago Wards – Post 4 REVISEDNorth Beverly Joins the Chicago Ward Structure
In 1890, three parcels of land were annexed to the City of Chicago, forever changing the Ridge communities.
First, the unincorporated area between 87th Street and 95th Street, and between State Street and Western Avenue, which includes today’s North Beverly, was annexed.
This annexation included local communities whose names were on the stops along the Rock Island railroad line (now the Metra line) – Beverly Hills (91st Street) and Longwood (95th Street). Also included was a section of Englewood and the Brainerd neighborhood to the east. These communities were identified as “flourishing new suburbs” by the Chicago Tribune.
A new state law passed in 1889 allowed for incorporated areas and the cities with which they wanted to annex to hold elections on the issue. However, unincorporated areas still fell under the jurisdiction of the previous law referred to as the “James P. Root annexation law,” which allowed areas to annex by petitioning the city. A petition had to be signed by three-fourths of the legal voters and property owners representing two-thirds of the community’s value.
The voters and property owners of Beverly Hills,
Longwood, and the communities to the east, petitioned the Chicago city council to annex this territory, and the Judiciary Committee signed off on this petition, in April 1890. The city council then passed an ordinance to make the annexation official in May of 1890.
The Chicago city council assigned this land to the existing thirty-first ward, which had just been established the year before when 125 square miles of land was added to the city. The wards were reconfigured, and new ones were added at that time, bringing the total number of wards from twenty-four to thirty-four.
The two aldermen of the thirty-first ward became the first aldermen for the Ridge communities. They were Captain George F. McKnight and Edwin J. Noble. Both had just been elected the previous year when the ward was established.
Noble was a grain merchant and stock trader. He came to Chicago in 1876 from Pennsylvania, entered the grain business, and became a member of the Chicago Board of Trade. He was then appointed by the governor as chief grain inspector for the State of Illinois.
McKnight came to Chicago in 1869 from Buffalo, New York, after serving in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. He had a wide background in business and founded the Lake Gas Company in Chicago. He was appointed by the governor to the Board of Equalization which dealt with property tax appeals.
It was believed that the annexation of this land would open the door immediately for Washington Heights and Morgan Park to follow suit. This did happen with Washington Heights but not with Morgan Park.
The other two areas annexed to the City of Chicago by election in 1890 were the incorporated areas of Washington Heights and West Roseland. The official vote was entered into the Cook County records on November 21, 1890.
The next step was for the Chicago city council to pass an ordinance recognizing the annexation and adding the land to the ward system.
Next post: Washington Heights joins the ward system of Chicago
Happy Thanksgiving
Hoping to help reunite a country torn by war, Thanksgiving became a fixed holiday under President Abraham Lincoln in 1863.
There is a lot of information out there about early harvest and thanksgiving celebrations on American soil by the European colonists, but generally, when we think about the event that influenced today’s celebration, we’re looking at the celebration that occurred in 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, as a harvest feast. The celebrants were the English Protestants called Puritans, known in American history as the “Pilgrims,” who had split from the Church of England and come to the New World on the ship called the Mayflower; other Englishmen such as the crew who also came on the ship; and the Wampanoag people, the Native American tribe that had lived in the area for over 12,000 years.
Note that there was already a colony of settlers in Jamestown, Virginia, dating to 1607. Most likely they also held harvest feasts, but the Plymouth celebration is the one for which detailed records exist.
The Pilgrims intended to go farther south than Massachusetts. Delays caused them to not leave England until September, and they arrived in America in November. Bad weather forced them to land where they did and remain there for the winter. They were not at all prepared for the freezing cold and snow they encountered in the New World, which had a much harsher climate than that of England. The one hundred settlers and fifty crew members stayed on the ship in Plymouth harbor that first winter. Many of them, weakened by the trip and suffering from scurvy from lack of Vitamin C, and some already suffering from tuberculosis, came down with pneumonia. About half of them died on the ship, most without ever setting foot in their new country.
They were finally able to come ashore and build huts in March 1621. They were greeted by the Wampanoag people. Early relations between the Native Americans and the European settlers were cordial. The Wampanoag showed the Pilgrims how to fish and hunt in the area, and how to cultivate the native food plants and gather fruit. Without the generosity and hospitality of the Native Americans, the settlers had a much poorer chance of surviving.
As far as what was available for a harvest feast that fall, many items we take for granted now were not available then. There were no sweet or white potatoes. It would be another hundred years before potatoes came up to North America from South America. The Pilgrims had not yet planted wheat fields so there were no pies and no bread. The sugar rations they brought with them had quickly been depleted on the journey over, so there were no jellies or sweet desserts. They brought no large livestock with them on the Mayflower, only chickens, and a few pigs and goats, so there were no dairy products except maybe goats’ milk. No ovens had been constructed yet for baking, so all cooking was done over open fires.
A journal kept by Puritan William Bradford reported the colonists went fowl hunting for this harvest feast. Duck, geese, swans, and turkeys were all plentiful. The Wampanoag guests brought a gift of five deer to the celebration, so venison, probably some roasted and some served in a hearty stew, was without doubt on the menu. Historians also believe that seafood was a major component of the feast, this being New England by the coast. Mussels, lobster, bass, clams, and oysters were readily available. The first Thanksgiving was very heavy on animal protein.
The vegetables the Wampanoag cultivated at the time included corn, pumpkins, squash, turnips, garlic, onions, beans, carrots, lettuce, spinach, and cabbage. The pumpkins were roasted. Fruits available for gathering included blueberries, plums, grapes, and gooseberries. Cranberries were there but it was another fifty years before there were reports of boiling them with sugar to make a jelly.
Flint corn, the multi-colored “Indian corn,” was plentiful at the first harvest. Most likely, the corn was ground into cornmeal, which was boiled and pounded into a thick corn mush or porridge. This was called Indian pudding, a take on the English fondness for “hasty pudding.” Later this dish was sweetened with molasses, made from sugar cane brought up from the Caribbean islands.
Herbs, and nuts like chestnuts, walnuts, and beechnuts, were plentiful from the forests. Along with onion, these would have been used for stuffing the fowl and flavoring dishes.
The celebration itself was a three-day event, with feasting, ball games, singing, and dancing. “Grace” was likely said before meals, but it was several years later that an official prayer service was added to the annual harvest celebration to give thanks for rain after a two-month drought.
Within a few years, the Pilgrims planted wheat and other crops. Other settlers came, bringing dairy cows and honeybees. But it is the native foods that make the day what it is – pumpkins, white and sweet potatoes, corn, cranberries. At least 60% of the food crops grown throughout the world today originated with the Indigenous People of the Americas. And of course, turkeys are native only to the Americas.
History of the Chicago Wards – Post 3Annexation of Washington Heights to Chicago
The villages and towns around the City of Chicago, the “suburbs,” generally annexed to improve services, especially water and sewers. In addition, police and fire departments, schools, libraries, and other public services were expensive for small communities to maintain on their own.
The suburbs began to see real growth in the 1870s. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 displaced a lot of city residents and broke up old neighborhood associations. Businesses encroached on the remaining residential neighborhoods to reestablish themselves. Moving outside of the city offered homeowners the advantages of cheaper homes and less congestion. For those who lost everything in the fire, it was a chance to start over, away from the conditions and constant reminders of the trauma they had experienced.
According to the Chicago Tribune in 1873, one of the hottest suburban areas for speculation and growth was Washington Heights and Morgan Park on the Blue Island Ridge. Land prices in the area had doubled in the past year.
Even before the Fire, the Washington Heights area was being lauded in the Tribune. In 1869, the paper wrote that “among the many suburban places …, there is none more attractive than the new one … called Washington Heights.” The article mentioned the “high and beautiful wooded land, which commands a fine view of the city and Lake Michigan.” It also mentioned the work that was in progress by the Blue Island Land and Building Company, the construction of “beautiful, wide avenues” and the laying out of five- and ten-acre lots, that would be marketed in the coming year as Morgan Park.
In 1870, the “dummy line” bringing the Rock Island Railroad west to Washington Heights was established. This played a major role in increasing accessibility to the area, allowing for the rapid growth that began in the 1870s. Not just homes for the wealthy and middle-class were being built; laborers bought up small lots along the railroad lines and built cottages.
The largest annexation to the City of Chicago occurred in 1889 when 125 square miles of territory was added to the city. This included all of Hyde Park Township and Lake Township on the south side, and Jefferson Township and Lake View Township on the north side. New wards were formed, bringing the total for the city to thirty-four wards.
This annexation almost brought the city to the boundaries of the Village of Washington Heights, which included today’s Beverly area, and Morgan Park.
The residents of Washington Heights were mostly in favor of annexation to the city. The major issue for the village was dealing with sewage, and the sewer system of the city, which then ended at Halsted Street, could be extended west.
Prominent people such as Robert Givins, real estate developer and builder of the Castle at 103rd Street and Longwood Drive, and William Barnard, owner of the largest tract of land in the community, petitioned in favor of annexation. There were reports of some initial resistance, although minor, from some of the older farmers in the area.
There was one snag in annexing Washington Heights, however. A three-square-mile stretch of land from 87th Street to 95th Street west of State Street, which included today’s North Beverly and Dan Ryan Woods, was not incorporated as part of any municipality, including the City of Chicago or the Village of Washington Heights. This land lay between the city and the village, and due to the way the annexation laws were written, prevented annexation because the land would not be continuous. The City of Chicago took legislative action under an old law to annex this parcel to the city in April of 1890, opening the way for a vote to annex the Village of Washington Heights.
In November of 1890, the voters of both the city and the village approved the annexation of Washington Heights to Chicago.
The annexation of the small town of Fernwood to the east of Washington Heights was also on the ballot, and although the city voters approved it, the Fernwood voters did not. However, the following year, Fernwood voters did approve annexation.
It was assumed by just about everyone that the annexation of Washington Heights meant that Morgan Park would follow within a year or two. However, annexation to the city became a real political issue for Morgan Park, and the decision to annex was not agreed upon for another twenty-four years.
This 1890 map of Chicago includes the new territory of Washington Heights. A bigger version of it can be accessed through Google.
Next post: Assigning Washington Heights to the Ward System
Daylight Savings Time
Daylight savings time (DST) ends tonight – technically, at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 7, 2021. Clocks should be turned back to 1:00 a.m. to gain an hour (“Spring forward, Fall back”).
DST is not part of nature’s plan – it is a manmade contrivance, and the artificiality starts in the Spring when an extra hour of daylight is added. Winter time is actually “standard time.”
The idea of adjusting time to coincide with the changing amount of available sunlight due to the rotation of the Earth goes back to ancient times. The Romans used water clocks that had different scales for different months. Daylight was always divided into 12 hours, but the hours varied in length from 75 minutes in the summer to 44 minutes in the winter.
Benjamin Franklin wrote a satirical letter to a Parisian newspaper in 1784 when he was Ambassador to France that indirectly touched on DST. He reported how surprised he was to discover the sun shining at 6:00 a.m. one day when he was accidentally awakened. He, like most people, did not rise until noon and go to bed until 3 or 4:00 a.m. He commented on how much candle wax and lamp oil could be saved if people adjusted their schedules to the sun’s schedule.
Instead, people adjusted the sun’s schedule to their own.
Although there was some experimentation with DST in other countries, it was the German Empire and Austria-Hungary that began the first national DST system in 1916 during World War I to conserve coal. Britain and its allies soon followed. The United States began DST in 1918.
In the years after the war, DST was discontinued in many countries, then restarted again. It was popular again during World War II, and came strongly into use in the 1970s with the renewed emphasis on conserving energy.
In the U.S., DST has been in use since 1918, with changes during the years to arrive at the schedule we use now. There is no uniform system throughout the world; there are even variations within the U.S.
Although the initial emphasis was on saving fuel, there are other outcomes of DST. The “plus column” includes increased economic activity like shopping during the extra daylight time, more outdoor recreation and leisure activities, and even some reduction in crime. Retail stores and the golfing and gardening industries are examples of pro-DST supporters.
The “minus column” includes the disruption in human circadian rhythms affecting sleep and other patterns, an increase in car accidents with the return to standard time, and a loss for indoor entertainment activities. More gas is used for cars during the additional daylight. Movie theaters and the T.V. and cable industry, and indoor dining and recreation places prefer standard time. Farmers don’t care for DST because cows don’t watch the clock to adjust their milking patterns. And of course, there is always confusion when the clocks are changed.
Public health officials recommend the best option would be to return to year-round standard time. However, many supporters want to change to permanent daylight savings time.
It takes an act of Congress to make any changes to the schedule. States cannot implement permanent DST. They can opt out of DST, but they cannot opt out of standard time.