BERWYN PAST-TIMES

SUMMER 2004 / VOLUME 25, NUMBER 2 A PUBLICATION OF THE BERWYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY P.O. BOX 479 / BERWYN, ILLINOIS 60402

Horse-Drawn Wagons, Trains, and Automobiles

By John Humiston Editor’s note: Recently, I was looking through the BHS archives for interesting items worth publishing, and I came across this gem of a letter from the brother of C. Cutler Humiston. It came to us after he had read through the Spring 1997 Past-Times featuring Cutler’s submission, “Memories of South Berwyn.” As I read through both articles, there were minor differences such as the mention of the same car – a Dort from Rhue Motor Sales or a Dart from Roo Motor Sales – but have chosen not to “correct” these minor details to conform to the previous publishing. I hope your imagination will be as busy as mine was as you see the streets of Berwyn from a bygone era. Mr. John Humiston has passed on since the time of his writing, but his memories remain.

…South Berwyn streets were paved with macadam, mixed sizes of crushed stone firmly compacted and sometimes bound with asphalt or tar. Curbs were slabs of cut sandstone about four inches thick, two feet high, and five feet long embedded edgewise in the ground at the edges of the pavement. Thirty-fourth Street carried the principal east-west traffic from Ridgeland to Harlem where the pavement ended. Harlem had two trolley tracks centered on the boundary with Riverside, but there was no street. A rutted dirt

road crossed the trolley tracks and then paralleled the tracks south to a connection with Lawton Road where traffic could continue west. The pavement on 34th Street had broken up in front of the George Norton home just west of Wenonah, becoming a deep, rutted mud hole. A similar condition existed farther east between Grove and Kenilworth. Most traffic was horse drawn. Dirt and construction materials usually moved in hopper bottom wagons. Coal was deliv-ered in box bed wagons, which were remounted on bobsled

runners in the wintertime. Milk and dairy products were delivered daily direct to each house by wagons. Some houses were served by wagons of the Bowman Dairy Company and others by wagons of Borden’s. C. M. Moline’s ice wagon was a popular vehicle in the summertime. The ice was in 1,000 pound blocks covered with canvas to retard melting. The iceman used a pick to cut off 25-, 50-, 75-, and 100-pound chunks as ordered which he carried to our back porch refrigerator using a pair of tongs. He wore a padded leather shoulder pad on which to rest the ice while carrying it. Each house ordered ice for the day by displaying an ice card in the front window. Ice cards were of cardboard about 12 inches square and could be placed in four positions so that any of the numbers 25, 50, 75, or 100 could be on top to indicate the amount ordered.

Thirty-fourth Street received a concrete pavement past our house in 1923. The work was done by the James A. Sackley Company of Chicago. First, a trenching machine dug a drainage ditch from east to west down the center, and then a tile sewer pipe was laid with connections to the curb drains. It was followed by a (Continued on page 2.)

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(Continued from page 1.) steam-powered shovel which dug out the old pavement to provide a sub-grade for the new. Manufactured by the Thew Company in Ohio, the steam shovel was a fascinating machine. It had four steel travel wheels about thirty inches in diameter with about 12-inch treads under a rectangular steel frame. A circular track on top of the frame carried the machinery deck with a closed cab, a vertical steam boiler and counterweight in the rear, and a boom and shovel or dipper stick in the front.

The operator controlled the shovel from a lever bank on the right front, while a fireman tended the boiler in the rear. The deck machinery was driven by a steam engine whose exhaust was discharged up the boiler chimney to provide a draft for the fire. Through clutches, gears, and shafting, this engine provided the motion of travel, driving the carrying wheels with a vertical shaft down the center; the motion of rotation, or slewing of the machinery deck on the circular track; the motion of boom hoisting; and the motion of shovel hoisting. A second steam engine mounted halfway up the boom provided a fifth motion, the crowd, forcing the dipper stick in and out with a rack and pinion. The steam exhausted from the crowd engine was discharged at the top of the boom.

Because the travel wheels were unsuited for the dirt sub-grade, the shovel traveled on four timber slabs. To move forward, the machine would pick up the wood slab from behind, then swing it around and place it in front. It was an impressive machine to us young boys. Our neighbor Thomas White, then about six years old, asked his older sisters what the machine was, and they told him it was a “belching derrick.” To supply the concrete paver which followed, the 3300 block of Wisconsin Avenue became a material yard and crushed stone and sand were trucked in and dumped. A steam-powered clamshell crane, similar in design to the shovel, raised the stone and sand into an elevated hopper mounted on wheels. A fleet of Clark Equipment Company Tructractors, small three-wheeled dump trucks, loaded at the hopper and carried the materials to the paver. Cement was added, and the concrete was mixed and placed on the sub-grade much the same as now.

The Burlington was known as the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railroad. Through-passenger trains to and from Kansas City, Omaha, Denver, and St. Paul raced through without stopping. Freight trains originated and terminated at Clyde as they do now, but were composed of lighter and fewer cars than today. Berwyn had frequent commuter service serving the same three stations as today. There was also local freight service. The way-freight normally operated on the north track of the three, and would sometimes wait while a refrigerator car was opened while sides of beef (which were hung from hooks in the car ceiling) were unloaded for the local meat market – probably Hamm’s although I’m not positive. The railroad had a turnout from the north track just east of Oak Park Avenue, with the switch points facing west, that led to a team track, a side track running east for two or three blocks. (Continued on page 3.)

BERWYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Our mission is to preserve, protect and promote architectural and historic resources in Berwyn through advocacy and education.

The Berwyn Historical Society was

formed in 1979 to save the Berwyn train station. Its purpose is to preserve the history of Berwyn. The Society is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization whose membership is open to all individuals, families, community organizations and businesses. Our office is located in the North Berwyn Congregational Church, 1241 South Oak Park Avenue. Member-ship includes educational programs, special events and quarterly newsletters. To volunteer or for other information, contact the BHS office at (708) 484-0020, or write to: Berwyn Historical Society, P.O. Box 479, Berwyn, Illinois 60402. BOARD MEMBERS President

Lori Thielen Vice President

Jacky Wawrzyniak-Kveton Treasurer

Gail Lofgren Secretary

Rev. David Olson

Rev. John Clark Joanne DeWig Mary Mottet Doris Remp Gus Trujillo

Newsletter Editor: Anna Bass Past-Times is a quarterly publication of the Berwyn Historical Society. Copyright © 2004 We welcome replies to the information con-tained in this newsletter. Article contributions are also welcome. Please call or write us at the above address. The Past-Times is a member-ship benefit of the Berwyn Historical Society.

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(Continued from page 2.) The way-freight would set out cars on the team track for unloading, picking them up a day or so later when empty. Coal was the main commodity. C. M. Moline had a small brick office on the southeast corner of Stanley and Oak Park with a wagon scale on the east. Moline later moved to a larger yard on the south side of the Burlington east of Ridge-land Avenue in La Vergne.

The Illinois Central Railroad also participated in Berwyn’s traffic. Until about 1926 passenger commuter service was operated between the sta-tion at Randolph Street and Beaubien Court in Chicago and a station in Addison at Lake Street. Berwyn was served with a station at Oak Park Avenue and a Riverside station called Parkway on 26th Street a short distance west of Harlem. The trolley car line to La Grange crossed the Illinois Central at Parkway, and all trains made a safety stop and whistled off before proceeding. Passenger trains to Rockford, Freeport, and Iowa also stopped at the Berwyn station. Freight service was provided to the Berwyn Lumber Company’s yard at 31st Street and Oak Park Avenue, where many carloads of lumber and building materials were received as required by the growth of Berwyn. Cutler reminds me that the Nerad coal yard on Ridgeland Avenue north of the railroad was another Illinois Central customer.

Berwyn was served by three trolley car lines of the Chicago and West Towns railways. The Berwyn-Lyons route commenced at 22nd Street and Kenton on the Cicero-Chicago boundary and ran via 22nd Street, 52nd Avenue, 25th Street, Central, 26th Street, Ridgeland, Stanley, Harlem, and Ogden to Ogden and Lawndale in Lyons. The La Grange route also commenced at 22nd Street and Kenton and ran via 22nd Street, Harlem, 26th Street, Des Plaines Avenue, Woodside Road to Park Place, west on a private right of way to beyond Salt Creek, through Brookfield via Monroe, Broadway, and Lincoln, crossed the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad at grade, then via private right of way to La Grange Road, and over Hillgrove Avenue to Brainard. The third line, which just touched Berwyn, ran from

Austin Avenue west on Chicago Avenue to Harlem, south on Har-lem to Madison, west on Madison to Des Plaines, south on Des Plaines to Roosevelt Road, east on Roose-velt to Laramie [52nd] Avenue, south on Laramie to 35th Street, and west on 35th to Austin. Chicago Ra-pid Transit Compa-ny’s Metropolitan Di-vision Douglas Park Line also served Ber-wyn extending west next (Continued on page 4.)

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(Continued from page 3.) to the alley north of 22nd Street to Oak Park Avenue with stations at Lombard, Ridge-land, and Oak Park Avenues. A Riverside business that also served Berwyn was Keller and Henderson’s coal and building material yard on the north side of Burlington Road in Riverside between Delaplaine and Herrick. It was served by the Burlington way-freight also. It was a horse-and-wagon operation initially and had a large stable, at least two dozen horses I would think. In the wintertime the wagons were placed on bobsled runners. Much of the traffic on 34th Street was the teams of Keller and Henderson. Our father would take his shovel and collect the horse droppings from the street to fertilize our garden. In the wintertime, the snow on the streets quickly packed down and became hard and solid. The streets were not plowed, but a wooden wedge plow five feet wide pulled by a single horse plowed the sidewalks. This generally left a layer of packed snow on the walks so both street and sidewalks were ideal for sledding. Some boys hitched their sleds to the rear bumpers of autos, but our parents frowned on this. An exception to the snow-covered streets was the Chicago and West Towns Railways trolley tracks on Stanley, Ridgeland, and 26th. The trolley company rostered several rail-mounted snow sweepers and a couple of plows. Because the return electrical circuit was through the rails, they had to be kept bare. The trolley company also used salt in its fight against snow, but otherwise there was no spreading of salt as there is today. From an early day, Dad owned a second-hand Maxwell automobile but never learned to drive it. Our older cousin from Hinsdale came over to drive it occasionally and give Dad lessons, but the car was temperamental and unreliable. When Dad was thinking about buying a real car, he became interested in the Dort. The Dort was built by a Flint, Michigan, Company that started its business manufacturing horse-drawn carriages and wagons. There is a Dort Boulevard in Flint named after the family. I believe it was one of Dad’s friends in the city council (Dad was first ward alderman for a couple of terms.) that told him that Joe Pitra was selling the Dort car and go see him. Joe worked for Rhue Motor Sales, which had a garage at about 1210 South Oak Park Avenue. It was owned by a Mr. Rhue.

Mr. Pitra sold Dad a 1923 Model Dort Phaeton seating five passengers, two in front and three in the rear. It had a canvas top like the convertibles of today, but much more primitive. For inclement weather, it had cloth side curtains with a series of vertical windows about three inches wide by about ten inches high made of sheet mica and called isinglass. The front window, or windshield, was real glass with a single wiper operated manually with a crank on the inside. It was powered with a four-cylinder Lycoming engine and had a three-speed transmission controlled by a shift lever rising from the car floor. Both power and braking were done with the rear wheels, and there was both a foot brake pedal and a hand lever with a latch. Mr. Pitra taught our mother to drive, but Dad’s interest turned out to be taking the engine apart and putting it back together. When I became old enough Mother taught me to drive….

Cooking 99 Years Ago Boston Baked Beans Place in the bottom of a three-quart bean pot one small onion, then three pints of pea beans (not soaked) and one-half pound fat salt pork on top of beans; now mix together well one small cup of molasses, one tablespoonful of ground mustard, one tablespoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of pepper, then add one quart of warm water to the mixture, or enough to entirely cover beans. Put the cover on the pot and place in a moderately hot oven at 7 a.m., at 11 a. m. and 2 p. m. fill the pot again with water (warm) and about 5 p. m. remove the cover and allow them to brown until 6:30. Serve hot with tomato catsup. Mock Corn Oyster To a pint of corn pulp add the well-beaten yolks of two eggs; two large tablespoonfuls of flour, one-half teaspoonful of salt, a hint of black pepper; mix well, add the beaten whites of the two eggs last. When the fat for frying is ready, drop in oyster shape from a spoon into the hot fat. Brown both sides, and serve hot. Source: Household Recipes from “Berwyn Town Topics” published monthly by Clayton B. Mead, Ph. G., Berwyn, Ill. January 1905

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. Naperville’s Imitation

Musings by Rev. David Olson

It caught my attention – a little bank with a blue dome, in Naperville. I immedi-ately went to Walgreen’s and bought a disposable camera to take some pictures. It is not, and never has been, on the endangered buildings list. It’s too new for that, built about fifteen years ago, by a cashier’s estimate. I thought it was interesting that out in Naperville, folks wanted a classic bank like that

and built one – on a small scale – at a busy corner. Berwyn has a much larger, grand old bank with a dome at Cermak Road and Oak Park Avenue. The bank in Naperville is, well, cute. The bank in Berwyn is magnificent in comparison, and will be more so, we hope, in the near future, after a much-needed facelift. We look forward to a new lease on life for the Berwyn National Bank. But thankfully, we won’t have to start from scratch. After restoration, “our bank” will be a class act Berwyn can be proud of – the Grande Dame in the heart of our revitalized business district!

M E M B E R S H I P N E WS

THANK YOU… To all who renewed: Sandy Cervenka Helene Clarke Margaret Fullmer Vera Hlavacek August & Linda Kalal Carol Kovarik West Evelyn Parazin Robert Pechous

WELCOME… To new members: Brian & Kristine Dillon Joel & Cynthia Erickson Monica Garcia Winifred Hamm Susan & David Hauptman Patricia Lucas Dennis Pavlik Rod & Krista Piechowski Brian Strand & Marie Hovi Lillian Wilczewski

DONATIONS… Thank you to the following for

additional financial support to help provide for the future of the BHS:

Helene Clarke Joel & Cynthia Erickson Roxanne & Douglas Faulds Marianne & Wally Jankowski Carol Kovarik West Ted & Joyce Orland Henrietta Bartizel Pons Brian Strand & Marie Hovi

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F R O M T H E P R E S I D E N T

For our members who are not tapped into our local media I wanted to update you on two very important preservation issues. The first issue:

I am very happy to report that the vacant former First United Methodist Church at 3409 Grove Avenue has been sold to a new congregation, the "Christian Life Center." As you know, the Society actively worked with the Berwyn Park District on two referendums to save the Former First United Methodist Church at 3409 Grove Avenue. The referendums unfortu-nately failed on a proposal to turn the former Church complex into a community house for the residents of Berwyn. Many of the Chris-tian Life Center’s volun-teers have been cleaning, rewiring, and repairing the buildings. Appropriately, the Center’s pastor, David Tinberg, has expressed in-terest in keeping the build-ings’ architectural integrity.

In 1999, the Berwyn Historical Society was suc-cessful in obtaining approv-al from the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council for the National Register nomi-nation of this important property. Following our efforts, the National Park Service officially deemed the church complex eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, (listing number 990014210). Sadly, the former Church closed its doors to the Berwyn congregation on June 27, 1999; but now happily, the Christian Life Center will be opening its doors again to the Berwyn community. The second issue:

The long ten-year drawn-out struggle over the former Berwyn National Bank building may finally be coming to an end. The Berwyn Develop-ment Corporation (BDC) has recommended to Ber-wyn City Council the Development firm Centrum Properties, Inc. who is proposing to reuse the struc-ture as - a bank. Centrum recognized that the adaptive reuse of the Bank would serve as a symbol for our community and would be an important component to anchor this new retail district. Unfortunately, Centrum also proposed to demolish the two historic structures adjacent to the bank, which are also

architecturally significant. So it appears that Berwyn will forever lose these two structures to the famous "coffee house." The irony for me, and I’m sure for some of you, is that ten years ago the only building vacant and threatened on the entire block was the Berwyn National Bank building, and over the years as this project snowballed into the dubious "Superblock," the only remaining original building on the entire block will be the former Bank. To its credit, Centrum has reported that there is: "no elected or appointed City of Berwyn official, or employee, or person that serves on any public City of Berwyn board or commission that will have any direct or indirect interest in the Development

and Management Entity." Also, to its credit, the group has extensive ex-perience in the adaptive re-use of buildings such as loft conversions to residential, complete make-over and additions to existing retail buildings, and general up-grades to older buildings. Some of their completed projects are Wesley Square in Historic Downtown Wheaton, Illinois, the reno-vation of the former Marshall Field’s building in Evanston now called the Evanston Galleria, and their impressive involvement with the former Montgom-ery Wards catalog building

which consisted of 31 acres of land and 2.6 million square feet of vacant buildings which had been neglected for many years.

The Society will continue to actively monitor progress on this important project. These types of issues will continue to affect our community and we should no longer have to be divided over preservation issues. Berwyn needs a Preservation Ordinance.

Lori Thielen – President

Editor’s note: The Town of Normal recently approved a downtown design ordinance that will help ensure that future renovation and construction projects will complement the area’s historic character even though the downtown is not a designated landmark. Normal’s website at www.normal.org has a Downtown Renewal link with more information.

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S O C I E T Y N E WS A n o t h e r S u cc es s f u l A n t iq u e S a l e –

T h a nk s t o You !

Thank you to every-one who attended and helped out at the 14th Annual Antique and Collectible Sale, held April 17th. The Society extends its sincere thanks to the many indi-viduals and organiza-tions that donated time, services, and/or pro-ducts to the success of this annual fundraiser. Also a big thank you to Ed and Linda Rios for their help at the mem-bership table and for their help in distributing gifts to the many raffle winners.

Berwyn Firsts

� The first polling place in central Berwyn in 1920 was the Krempa home at 2514 Grove.

� Vernon “Shorty” Balgeman provided the first taxi service in Berwyn in 1915, with a horse-drawn rig. Shorty’s business oper-ated from an office in the 3200 block of Elliot (Grove) across from the Auditorium Theater.

� Oak Park and Windsor was the first business block with a post office and grocery store in 1892.

For the record: “Baseball Benchmarks” which appeared in our last issue should have been credited to “Baseball for Everyone” Abrams 2003/American Folk Art Museum.

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U P C O M I N G EVE N T S

Saturday, July 24 – Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservatory’s 15th Annual Tour For information and to register (312) 663-5500 Sunday, July 25 – Czechoslovak Festival At National Groves 1 and 2, 29th Street and Des Plaines Avenue, North Riverside – 11:00 a.m. until dusk Saturday, July 24 – Eighty-ninth Anniversary Commemoration Ceremony and Program of the Eastland Disaster of 1915 Ceremony open to the public at the corner of Wacker Drive and LaSalle Street – Beginning at 1:30 p.m.

Friday, July 30 – In Search of DuSable documentary DuSable Museum 740 East 56th Place, Chicago – For more information call (312) 377-2169

BERWYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY “Remembering Our Past for the Future” Box 479 Berwyn, Illinois 60402

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