By looking up the Linden L station on Wikipedia I found the name of Chicago Tribune article from 1912 with the story; "Night Raid Puts "L" in Wilmette" I found the article using ProQuest (Junior Theme!). It turns out that the basics of my Dads story were right. The tracks were extended overnight, but over the opposition of the community instead of because of it. Most residents of Wilmette were opposed to having the L in their town because they were afraid that having the line would lead to groups of partygoers coming from Chicago during the summer. The railroad company owned the land, and wanted to extend the tracks for years, but when they decided to go ahead with the project, they were forced to do the construction in secret, because of the resistance from the community.
I found the story to be interesting because of the amount of influence Wilmette had over the railroad. It doesn't directly match the story of the big ditch, but the fact that the community was able to prevent the tracks for so long still reflects the amount of influence wealthy towns have. The town showed a sort of protectionism; they didn't want "less desirable" crowds to have access to their town.The ability to protect the status of a town is a very good marker of class; the people in Wilmette had both the desire and the power to prevent an influx of outsiders.I haven't really been following the Winnetka affordable housing debate, but I wonder if a similar strain of thought motivates some of the opposition to that proposal. Do you agree or disagree? Do wealthy communities try to exclude outsiders?
Image Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linden_(CTA_station)
I found the story to be interesting because of the amount of influence Wilmette had over the railroad. It doesn't directly match the story of the big ditch, but the fact that the community was able to prevent the tracks for so long still reflects the amount of influence wealthy towns have. The town showed a sort of protectionism; they didn't want "less desirable" crowds to have access to their town.The ability to protect the status of a town is a very good marker of class; the people in Wilmette had both the desire and the power to prevent an influx of outsiders.I haven't really been following the Winnetka affordable housing debate, but I wonder if a similar strain of thought motivates some of the opposition to that proposal. Do you agree or disagree? Do wealthy communities try to exclude outsiders?
Image Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linden_(CTA_station)
I think that this this is a great example of how communities try to keep things a certain way so as to counteract undesirable change. In fact, according to an article from George Mason University's History News Network, Kenilworth, IL, directly north of Wilmette, for years kept African-Americans, Jews, and Catholics out (the article is at this link: http://hnn.us/articles/25520.html.
ReplyDeleteThe article says that Joseph Sears founding the town on the basis that it would have, "Large lots, high standards of construction, no alleys, and sales to Caucasians only." It's difficult to believe that in a country known for being "the home of the free" that not all could freely buy a home in some areas. Of course, Kenilworth is not as it used to be, but it is interesting yet concerning to see segregation on such a large scale put in place all so a community can have a certain type of outlook.
I also recently looked into this story after my dad told me about it. I live about a block and a half from the Linden L station and its 100 year anniversary was two weeks ago (interestingly enough, the Bahai Temple's 100 year anniversary was the same day and they are only 2 blocks away from each other). As a frequent user of the L, I went over there and checked out an original car they had on display and read up on the origins of the station. I definitely agree that if Wilmette had not had an Ickes of its own, the L station would not have been constructed.
ReplyDeleteI see where the residents were coming from not wanting the station to be there because it causes a lot of traffic on days when the Cubs have games or there are other downtown events accessible by the L. But it also created a small shopping district with a few good restaurants, a hardware store, tailor, and more, which was obviously beneficial for the residents.
Joe, A thoughtful post and an accurate self-analysis in the meta post. It would be nice to highlight a link to the article for your reader, but otherwise you nicely extend our discussion. Good work this term!
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