wiebolts, ackemanns, spiess, woolworth downtown, enricos pizza, davids clothing store downtown, fayva shoe store, Zayre, and hit or miss jrs clothing store by zayre. Yaneys chicken, the embers restaurant, the blue moon, no. 10 downing street right by the roller rink in west dundee, gilberts chop suey, the chatau louise, ponderosa on larkin avenue, beef villa, jakes pizza, masis pizza, etc......7. Elgin in 1960 It was one of the last years before things began coming apart before advisers were sent to a far away place called Vietnam. Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House, and except for disturbing changes in teenage dress styles, the counterculture was not yet visible in Elgin in 1960. A survey of local youth reported conservative views. Their goals were marriage, family and financial security, and most opposed lowering the voting age to 18. Respondents did favor rock n roll, which the Courier-News described as a wailing diatribe on 20th-century culture.7b Besides the religious and national holidays, the year brought a succession of traditional local events. In March came the state tournament basketball games (EHS won the conference title and advanced to the sectional); in May, more than fifty units marched in the Loyalty Day parade, and the Junior Womans Club presented its biennial Follies with two chorus lines; the Song of Hiawatha attracted large crowds in June; bargain hunters thronged stores on Dollar Day in July; August brought the Kane County Fair; the Community Chest rounded up contributions in September and October; and in November came the annual Charity Ball sponsored by the Fideliters. For the first time since 1940, when Wendell L Willkie spoke briefly from the rear platform of his campaign train, a presidential candidate appeared in Elgin. John F. Kennedy, addressing a large noon-time crowd from an improvised dais at the intersection of DuPage Street and South Grove Avenue, alleged that Americas prestige in the world had slipped. The visit produced little change in local voting behavior. Richard Nixon carried Elgin Township by a count of 15,487 to Kennedys 5,924. The Dutch Elm disease, which had first appeared in Illinois in 1951 and in Elgin in 1956, was striking with full force. Although more than a thousand elms around town were now infested, voters in a referendum rejected a forestry program to halt the spread of the blight. The 1960 census figures, besides showing a population of 49,447, supplied more statistical information about the city than any previous count. Median family income in 1959 was $7,147, nearly six hundred dollars more than the statewide figure. Persons employed in white-collar occupations now exceeded those employed as craftsmen and operatives. Only 13.7 percent worked outside the city. A customarily high proportion of married women, 39.8 percent, had jobs, and 30.6 percent of the men older than 65 were still employed. Unemployment was low, only 2.6 percent at the time of the count. Excluding patients and employees on the state hospital grounds, about 61 percent lived on the east side of the river and 39 percent on the west side. The population, despite the fact that more than a fourth of the households had at least one child younger than six, had a median age of 37.4 years. Of the 270 housing units occupied by non-whites at the time of the census, about one-fifth lacked some plumbing facilities, and more than a fourth were considered to be deteriorating or dilapidated. To remedy the overcrowded living conditions among the black minority, the Association of Commerce proposed a privately financed multi-unit housing project on Hickory Place. Neighbors protested to the City Council, which was asked to re-zone the site, that it would depreciate property values. The Negro in Elgin needs a place to live and he needs it badly, Adelia Green testified before the council. He pays more for the same place than the white person does, so he cant depreciate the value of the property if hes paying more.8 The plan was defeated. The downtown business district was changing. The Union National Bank razed Towns Block, rebuilt after the fire of 1879 on the southeast comer of Fountain Square, for a new structure. The First Federal Savings & Loan Association occupied new quarters on the comer of North Grove and Highland avenues. Radio station WRMN moved from the Fox Hotel to a location farther south on Douglas Avenue and started up night broadcasting on FM. Carson Pirie Scott & Company, a Chicago retailer bought out the Block & Kuhl department stores. It was closed when Carsons opened a branch in the Meadowdale shopping center. Some local traffic was routed away from the downtown area when the U.S. 20 bypass was opened between McLean Boulevard and Grace Street. Seeking to provide parking for downtown shoppers, the city rushed to completion the Riverside parking deck on the east side of the river between Prairie and Chicago Streets. Extending over the river, the concrete slab was supported by rows of concrete piles that allowed the water to flow underneath. The decks 175 spaces brought the total capacity of the city governments off-street metered lots to 619. Governor William G. Stratton arrived by helicopter to start the 34th annual fifty-mile bicycle race from Elgin to Chicago. The thirty-three amateur cyclists left in five separate groups at seven minute intervals. The riders pumped up Illinois 31 to U.S. 14 and followed this road to the finish line on Devon Avenue, just east of Milwaukee Avenue. Bob Tetzlaff of Los Angeles set a new record of one hour, 43.72 minutes. The Illinois Tollway, Interstate 90, had been completed from OHare Field to South Beloit in 1958. The four-lane limited-access road skirted the northern edge of Elgin. It was another fulfillment of James Giffords foresight that his settlement would sit astride a major transportation corridor. Late in 1960, the Northwest (now Kennedy) Expressway was finished, linking the tollway with Chicagos Loop. The Congress Street (now Eisenhower) Expressway, which had been opened in stages beginning in 1954, was now nearly finished and connected Elgin with Chicago via U.S. 20. The expressway system, coupled with the expansion of the Metropolitan Sanitary District, opened the farmland in the western neck of Cook County for housing development.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 04:27:34 +0000
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