Homes and Neighborhoods I grew up in Downers Grove. My first ten years we lived on Second Street across from where Pepperidge Farm is now. We sledded down the hill on Second Street and Smoky Hollow hill just east of Pepperidge Farm and played in the prairie there. The Fredenhagens lived at Fairview and Second Street and we’d have rainbow cones at Prince Castle by the tracks on the south side. We moved to 59th Street and Plymouth Court on three acres when Pepperidge Farm was coming to town. My dad had to resign from the village council because we were moving out of the village limits. When Hillcrest School was built my mom was a lunch room monitor. I attended Whittier School through third grade, Lincoln School through sixth grade, Herrick Junior High and Downers Grove North. I remember skating at Prince Pond and winning races in the ice carnivals, the fall festival held on Labor Day Weekend, being a princess and selling tickets on Main Street, and painting windows for Halloween. Our house on Second Street has been torn down and replaced with two million dollar homes. The house on Gierz Street that my grandfather built has also been torn down and replaced. The house on Washington Street that my other grandparents lived in has not changed a bit. My grandmother was a seamstress and made clothes for many local people. We spent a lot of time with the Selig Sisters! My father-in-law owned the 17 acres where Best Buy and T.J. Maxx is now and we built our first house on that property. I’ll never forget the snow of 1967. I had a six-week old baby and my husband couldn’t get home that night. We moved away in 1970 but have come back to town and are happy to be back! Susan Chester Brixie Downers Grove Vintage Architecture In response to the Downers Grove Library’s request for early experiences here, I wish to add my story. My father was an architect and contractor who came to Oak Park and built a number of luxury homes in north Oak Park and in River Forest. After losing a lung from a mugging, he then found employment with Sears, Roebuck and Company in the Modern Homes “Kit Houses” construction department. My father innovated a series of architectural designs for five-floor plans from one precut kit assembly. This included prehung framed windows and doors he coordinated with Weyerhauser in Chicago. He introduced platform and brick veneer construction. When Sears closed down this department in the late 1930s, the plans were sold to the Wausau Lumber Company in Wisconsin. This originated the Wausau home semi-prefabs, many of which were built in our community. The Burlington Railroad car barn, round table, and extra sidings facilitated the box cars that would hold two kit homes each. This is why Downers Grove, as well as Villa Park and Lombard, which had sidings by the Ovaltine plant, created this market for self-built homes. The car barns were close to where the Hines Lumber Company is currently located on Warren Avenue. Many of the larger homes on Gilbert Avenue were originally rooming houses for the laborers who worked for the Burlington complex here. Later development has taken most of these buildings out and converted them to townhouses just west of the library. On many weekends as a pre-teenager, I accompanied my father to Downers Grove on the Burlington Railroad. He would call on the builders of Sears kit homes to assist them in their progress with tips and advice on the erection process sequence. I can recall when we first walked from the train station south on Main Street and noticed a dip in the street where St. Joseph Creek ran through the center of town. It was soon after routed through a large water main and much of downtown Downers Grove was built up on fill as it is today. Our town has gone through many changes including our current construction projects that we see today in the downtown area. The forerunner of our current architecture was the Masonic Lodge building on the southwest corner of Curtiss and Washington streets. It was completed in 1924 and was all masonry throughout, being virtually fireproof. This set the pattern for aesthetic brick construction which is still being followed. After many moves in my lifetime I am proud to live in Downers Grove with our heritage. I live in the Cameo senior condo complex. It was built with similar design patterns, also being a virtually fireproof steel structure with masonry and brick construction throughout. Ralph E. Gray