THE PRESENT Village of Wilmette is distinct among North Shore communities because it was created by the merger in 1924 of two older villages, Wilmette and Gross Point. The origins and development of these two communities differ greatly, and this difference is still visible today on the face of modern Wilmette. On the east, Wilmette developed on a wooded tract bordering Lake Michigan as a bedroom suburb of Chicago. On the west, Gross Point was the center of a German immigrant farming community that spread across the open fields west of what is now Ridge Road.

Prior to the arrival of humans, the North Shore of Chicago was a region of seas and glaciers. At the close of the last ice age, 12,000 years ago, the last glacial ice field melted and Lake Michigan extended to what is now Ridge Road. As lake currents carried debris south from eroded cliffs and the waters of the lake receded, bays, marshlands and ridges of beach were created. These marshes and landforms, along with dense forests, have characterized the area for the last several thousand years.

Native Americans were the first to inhabit the North Shore. European contact began with the arrival of French explorers three centuries ago. In those days a Pottawatomie village was located on the site of the present day Indian Hill Golf Club in Winnetka. The earliest European/American settlement in the region that would become the city of Chicago evolved at the mouth of the Chicago River around Fort Dearborn, built in 1803.

Among the first residents of Chicago was a French Canadian fur trader named Antoine Ouilmette. His wife, Archange Chevallier, was the daughter of a French trader and a Pottawatomie woman. In 1829, Antoine possibly helped negotiate between the United States and the Chippewa, Ottawa and Pottawatomie tribes in the adoption of the Treaty of Prairie du Chien, which gave the United States title to huge areas of land from Lake Michigan west to the Rock River.

It is believed that in reward for Antoine's help, the U.S. government presented Archange with a 1,280 acre land grant. The grant, thereafter known as the Ouilmette Reservation, occupied a wooded tract adjacent to Lake Michigan and was bounded by what is presently 15th Street, Elmwood Avenue, and Central Street in Evanston. The Ouilmette family lived in a log cabin near the present site of the Michigan Shores Club until 1838 when Antoine and Archange moved west to Iowa with the Pottawatomies. The Reservation was sold in the 1840s by the Ouilmette children to speculators from New York. The cabin stood on the bluff until it was lost to erosion in 1865.

The Green Bay Trail, which the U.S. Army forged northward along Lake Michigan to Fort Howard in Green Bay, Wisconsin, was significant in the development of the North Shore and beyond. Settlers from Chicago who followed the Green Bay Trail north established the first European communities along the lake, and the trail contributed to the growth of both Wilmette and Gross Point.

Beginning in the 1840s, at about the time the Ouilmette family moved from their lakefront cabin to Iowa, Catholic refugees from the area of Trier in Germany established a farming community beyond the western boundary of the Ouilmette Reservation (15th Street). They called their community Gross Point after the sharp bend in Lake Michigan north of what is now the Northwestern University campus which served as a landmark for shipping.

The life of the community centered around St. Joseph's Church and School, which was established in 1843. The first church building was a 24 by 30 foot log cabin just south of what is now the St. Joseph's cemetery. A new 50 by 120 foot stone building was finished in 1869. Under the leadership of Father William Netstraeter, who served as pastor from 1872 until 1923, additions were made to the building, but it too was replaced, this time by the 1939 building which stands today.

In 1874 the Village of Gross Point was incorporated with a population of approximately 300 people. The boundaries of the new community were Ridge Road on the east, Locust Road on the west, Winnetka Avenue on the north and Central Street in Evanston on the south. The Gross Point Village Hall, which now houses the Wilmette Historical Museum, was built in 1896.

Wilmette's road to incorporation began in 1869 when a group of five men formed a land syndicate to promote residential development on the former Ouilmette Reservation. John G. Westerfield, the Village's first president and the man who had originally farmed the land around the old Ouilmette cabin, laid out streets and lots between 15th Street, 8th Street, Elmwood Avenue, and Oakwood Avenue in his first survey of the Village. The group settled on the name "Wilmette Village," anglicizing the name of the pioneer settler "Ouilmette."

Despite the platting of the Village, it was not until 1872 that incorporation was put to a resident vote in which 37 of 42 voters cast their ballots to create the Village of Wilmette. Later that year the first formal village government for the 300 residents was assembled.

Beginning in 1874, Wilmette's physical area, as well as its property values, began to grow. Gage's Addition was platted north of Elmwood Avenue and then incorporated into the Village in 1886. The addition encompassed the land north of Elmwood Avenue between the Chicago & North Western tracks and 10th Street, with Chestnut Street as the northern boundary.

Wilmette's boundaries continued to expand with the construction of residential subdivisions between 15th Street and the Gross Point boundary along Ridge Road to a line onehalf block north of Elmwood Avenue. By 1890 this area had also been annexed to the Village. 1890 also witnessed the construction of the first village hall to serve Wilmette's 1,500 residents.

The incorporation of Kenilworth in 1896 halted expansion to the north, but in 1906 Wilmette expanded south to Isabella Street incorporating the Hillville subdivision between 5th and 6th Streets and Maple Avenue and nearby Llewellyn Park. Finally, in 1911 the area bounded by Wilmette Avenue on the north, 15th Street on the east, Isabella Street on the south and Ridge Road on the west was added to the Village. The original Village of Wilmette was complete.

The railroads played a crucial role during this period of growth and development. In the 1860s the Chicago and North Western Railroad agreed to establish a stop in Wilmette at Green Bay Road and Wilmette Avenue, spurring on development and strengthening the case for incorporation. Commuter train service to Chicago began in 1871. In 1894 the Chicago Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad extended a line through Evanston to a terminus at 3rd and Maple Streets in Llewellyn Park. Five years later the Chicago & Milwaukee Electric Railway Company extended its line south from Waukegan (running east of the C&NW tracks and proceeding east on Greenleaf Avenue) and connected it with the Chicago Milwaukee and St. Paul's lines at Llewellyn Park.

In 1910, the Northwestern Elevated Electric Railroad replaced the C M & St. Paul line, making electric train service to Chicago or Milwaukee available for the first time from the east side of the village. This line was expanded north to 4th Street and Linden Avenue in 1912, and in 1913, Northwestern Elevated Electric Railroad employees designed and erected a prairie style station intended to be a "high grade artistic terminal to attract the better purchasers."

By the1920s, most of the characteristic land use features of Wilmette were established. A business district extended two blocks east and west of the Chicago & North Western Railroad depot along West Railroad Avenue (Green Bay Road). A Carnegie Free Library (built in 1905) stood at Wilmette and Park Avenues and a Village Hall stood at the corner of Wilmette Avenue and Central Avenue. Several churches already occupied their present sites: the Congregational Church at Lake and Wilmette Avenues (built in 1875), St. Augustine's Episcopal Church on Wilmette Avenue and St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church opposite the Library.

Residential development was extending east with many large residences designed by distinguished local architects. Subdivisions of more modest homes were built west toward Ridge Road. The brick-paved streets were bordered with treelined parkways. On the lake shore, two major engineering projects were underway. The first project, the North Shore Channel, was constructed by the Chicago Sanitary District in 1909 and 1910 to control the flow of water from the Chicago River to the lake. Clay excavated from the channel was deposited nearby as landfill which became the Wilmette Harbor and Washington (later Gillson) Park. To administer this public land, the Park Board was established in 1908. The second major engineering project was the construction of Sheridan Road to replace the old Green Bay Trail. By 1920, the population of Wilmette had reached 7,814. To plan for orderly growth, a Village Plan Commission was formed in 1919. The Commission published the Plan of Wilmette in 1922 to anticipate improvements to streets, sanitation, schools, parks and the appearance of the downtown. Architect Charles C. Henderson suggested improvements for the business district including a village green opposite the Village Hall, a landscaped public mall opposite the Post Office and extensive plantings throughout the downtown. The Plan specifically called for the preservation and planting of trees to maintain the wooded character of Wilmette.

At the same time, Gross Point's population was growing steadily, although in less dramatic fashion than Wilmette's because the community retained a farming focus. The population increased from 327 in 1880 to 669 in 1900, and by the time of its last census figure in 1910, had reached 1,008 residents. The Revised Ordinances of Gross Point for 1906-1907 reflect a changing village. The number of trustees elected had doubled since Gross Point's incorporation, and the village added to its rolls an attorney, a comptroller, a police magistrate, a fire marshal, a street commissioner, and a pound master. The community also assembled two commissions in 1906-1907: the Board of Local Improvements and the Board of Health. Issues of health and safety factored significantly into the village's ordinances, as did regulation of Gross Point's many saloons and the new technologies affecting the village such as automobiles, electricity, and telephone service.

In April of 1919, with its neighbor to the east a burgeoning suburb and the passage of the Prohibition (18th) Amendment threatening Gross Point's many saloons and economic prosperity, the Gross Point citizens voted to dissolve their municipal government. It was not until 1923, the year the Gross Point Village Hall was finally sold to pay village debts, that the first steps toward dissolution to save the village through a referendum in January of 1924, but the attempt was voted down in a special election and the process of annexation into Wilmette moved forward. Events reached a climax in April of 1924, five years after the first vote for dissolution, when the area of Gross Point east of present day Illinois Road voted to join Wilmette. By 1926, the rest of Gross Point had been annexed and Wilmette's new boundaries stretched to the Chicago and North Western Railroad freight line west of what is now the Edens Expressway.

Development started immediately in the newly annexed land including the 170 acre development known as The Indian Hill Estates by Bills Realty, Inc. Promoted as an "ideal community," the subdivision was laid out by architect Philip Maher with winding roads. He was also responsible for approving each house design to assure a traditional harmonious community. Additionally, a brief surge of development on the drained Skokie Marsh followed the annexation. Until the area was drained, this land was unusable for settlement. The building boom in west Wilmette only lasted until the stock market crash in 1929, but Skokie Highway was constructed and Lake Avenue was improved and widened to encourage building in the west during the 1930s. The 1930s also included two significant Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects for the Village. First, work crews re-laid the brick streets, a project which helped preserve the character of the eastern part of the Village. WPA markers can still be found set in the paving at several intersections. The other notable project was the construction of an open air amphitheater in Gillson Park which was later named the Wallace Bowl. By 1940 the population of the Village had reached 17,226. In 1942, Wilmette's boundaries were further expanded when No Man's Land, the triangle of land near the lake and bordering Kenilworth, was annexed after years of legal and legislative battles. Zoning changes in No Man's Land would allow for the construction of highrise condominium apartment buildings in the early 1960s and the Spanish Court would be extensively remodeled in 1967 to become the Plaza del Lago Shopping Center. The changes in No Man's Land altered the character of the lakefront and brought in new retail and multi-family housing to Wilmette. The Edens Expressway opened in 1951 and the postwar baby boom brought rapid change to west Wilmette. Farmland disappeared as new streets, homes and parks sprang up. The Edens Plaza Shopping Center was opened in 1956. Improvements to the highways made it more convenient to drive to the city, bringing about the demise of the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad's North Shore Line in 1955 and the Skokie Valley Line in 1962. In 1952, a prominent Wilmette landmark, the Baha'i House of Worship, was completed forty years after its construction began.

The population of the Village grew from 18,162 in 1950 to 32,134 by 1970, and when the Village celebrated its centennial in 1972, there remained little vacant land. Wilmette had become a mature suburb, one whose coming challenges would be more of preservation and revitalization than of growth.

In 1974 the then nine-year-old Wilmette Historical Society turned its efforts towards preserving the Village's historic brick C&NW train depot, built in 1873. Led by Society president and future Village Trustee Joanne Andrews, the Society's "Save the Depot" campaign resulted in the original building being donated to the Society and moved to anew location on Wilmette Avenue. The brick structure had been used as freight storage since 1897 when it was replaced by another station which was then replaced in 1975. Other changes in the Village Center included construction in 1976 of a new Village Hall to replace the one built in 1910.

While Village services and infrastructure in the 1970s and 1980s were satisfactory, business districts were in need of revitalization. The Comprehensive Plan of 1986 addressed this problem and established guidelines for land use and the appearance of commercial development. A facade improvement program supervised by the Appearance Review Commission led to the rehabilitation of many commercial properties. Landscaping along Green Bay Road and new signage at Village boundaries was another step taken towards revitalization of the commercial areas.

With the improvement of the economy in the 1990s, Wilmette saw renewed interest in both its residential and commercial neighborhoods. In 1989, a redevelopment of the Edens Plaza Shopping Center brought increased shopping and traffic into west Wilmette. The late 1990s have seen a number of older structures in the Village Center torn down and replaced with developments featuring retail uses on the first floor and condominium units above. In 1998, two automobile dealerships on Green Bay Road were replaced with a Jewel/Osco grocery store.

Several major renovations of local historic structures were also carried out in the 1990s. The original brick CN&W depot was converted to the Old Ouilmette Depot restaurant in 1990. In 1991, fire destroyed a building in the Plaza del Lago Shopping Center and it was rebuilt in the style of the Plaza. After years of discussions between the Chicago Transit Authority and the Village, the old "el" station at 4th and Linden was leased to the North Shore Community Bank & Trust and remodeled into a bank in 1998.

In 1989 the Gross Point Village Hall was threatened with sale and demolition at the same time the Wilmette Historical Museum was looking for a new home. With the support of individual residents, the Village and the Historical Society jointly purchased the property. The Village, which covered more of the purchase cost, retained the title to the property and leased it to the Historical Society, which raised the funds necessary to restore the dilapidated building. It provides an outstanding example of the adaptive reuse of a historic structure to meet modern needs.

Wilmette looks to the future.

Maturity has not meant stasis for the Village. Wilmette continues to change. The 1980 census registered a population of 28,229, significantly down from 1970, and the 1990 census placed the population even lower, at 26,530. The 1990 census also noted that the number of over 65 residents and children under four is increasing. Studies indicate this trend of age polarization will continue, making providing services for these groups a challenge the Village will face in the coming years. Wilmette's shifting demographics extend beyond age, however. The average selling price of a home in Wilmette increased from $131,100 in 1980 to $379,000 in 1996, raising issues of a lack of affordable housing for Wilmette's older residents and young families. The Village will continue to struggle to find ways to balance its maturity as a suburb with growth and adaptation. The middle to late 1990s have witnessed a redevelopment of the housing stock, with homeowners and developers tearing down or adding to older homes and creating newer, larger structures in their place. Commercial and multifamily infill has also been common, often accompanied by controversy. Balancing the history of the Village with the changing demands of a successful community should prove to be a difficult challenge, truly worthy of the talents of Wilmette's residents.

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