The village of North Riverside is celebrating 85 years since its incorporation in 1923. Like its older sister to the south, North Riverside shares its history in that both villages were once the home of Potawatomi Indians, who found the area good for hunting and easy transportation on the river. About a mile north of the village, an Indian burial mound attests to the fact that the river was great transportation not only for the original settlers, but later for the Rev. Jacques Marquette and fur trader Louis Jolliet, who explored the area in the 1600s.
The first “big plans” that were laid for the land now occupied by the village died aborning when, in 1835, the land along the DesPlaines was purchased by a trapping firm turned into real estate promoters, namely “Rufus, Soules and Jodhua.” Real estate being the risky business it is, no contracts were written for the settlement of the land.
Shortly after the Civil War, David A. Gage, treasurer of the city of Chicago, purchased 1,600 acres of land covering what is now both sides of Harlem Avenue to 26th Street. Gage used the land for his country estate and a horse and cattle breeding farm. This included a half-mile race track and, later in the 1860s, he built a more elaborate track with grandstands and a judges’ stand. This attracted Chicagoans who enjoyed the racing, the river, and the fresh air. Gage lost the entire estate when he left his post as treasurer. “City tills found to be short over $500,000” read the headlines. David Gage’s home now rests on Longcommon Road and still is occupied.
In 1869, the Riverside Improvement Company was incorporated to attract settlement to this area, which included the plans laid by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. The ambitious venture for the first planned suburban village included land that now is both villages of Riverside and North Riverside, and settlement was aided by the great Chicago Fire of 1871. Unfortunately, a depression interfered with not only those plans but those of the Chicago World’s Fair, the Columbian Exposition, which finally opened in 1873. The Riverside Improvement Company went broke, and the lovely forest planned for North Riverside was set aside.
The Gage land was put to use by Chicago, partly as a nursery where numerous trees and shrubs were grown for transplant to the city. Other uses included the Cook County Home for Boys, which gave validity to the threat “If you don’t behave you’ll go to reform school,” which was within plain sight of those who might be “naughty.” The Home later became a tuberculosis sanatorium. The land nearly became a college, and almost 100 years after Gage lost the land, North Riverside was given a financial boon when the North Riverside Park shopping center was opened.
There have been some exciting moments in the maturation of the village. Some of the finest beers and wines were brewed in North Riverside basements during prohibition years. According to old timers, the brewers counted on winds from the Chicago Stock Yards to cover the smell of malt, hops and the home grown fruits used to make local wines. If the prevailing westerlies blew the odors to the East, an “old rubber tire was burned” to replace the stock yards’ odors.
In the “Roaring Twenties,” just after the village was incorporated, two carloads of gangsters ambushed Chief of Police Arthur Beltz and fired a dozen shots at him and the two officers who were riding with him on DesPlaines Avenue, just north of the village hall. Sgt. Fred Molkentine of the Riverside Police Force, who lived in North Riverside and had taken on extra duty in his home town, suffered a bullet to the jaw. Another resident, Chester Boddy, was dragged from his home and taken to Forest View where he was badly beaten.
The name of Chicago’s Mayor Anton Cermak was well respected in the area. In 1931 he donated the sum of $100 (big money in those days) to be used to update the village. Cermak, who was to die in two years at the side of President-elect Franklin Roosevelt, served as President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. The socially prominent Otto Kerner, who served as Illinois governor, married Helene Cermak, a Cermak daughter. The couple were prominent members of the local “Ceska Beseda,” a Bohemian cultural group still operating, with Barbara Cermak Ruska serving as president of the Ceska Beseda auxiliary.
“Mayor Cermak was buried from the Cermak Funeral Home in 1933 by my grandfather, Albert J.Cermak,” Ruska said. “My grandson, Joey Nikischer, is researching the history of Cermak family.”
The name “Cermak” is associated with the village of North Riverside inasmuch as Cermak Road, another name for 22nd Street, is a major thoroughfare in the village.
Matthew and Julian Heisman built a home in May of 1915 on the DesPlaines River, the forerunner of the well-kept lovely homes now covering the village, which are now mostly constructed of brick. The first brick home was built by Joseph Slavik on the east end of the town. In 1923, the population of North Riverside was 200; today 6,688 residents enjoy many services not typically offered to citizens, including a “handyman service” and an opportunity to register for snow plowing.
Eighty-five years of history cannot be detailed here. As part of the preparation for the upcoming celebration of North Riverside’s history, Mayor Richard Scheck has appointed a group of four who will serve as North Riverside’s Historical Commissioners. They include Dr. Queenella Miller, village clerk and professor at Northeastern Illinois University, North Riverside Recreation Director Sue Frampton, Deputy Police Chief Tom Tauer, and Kristina Saxon, assistant to Frampton. An updated history of the village, that will include a display of memorabilia collected over the years, will be displayed at the North Riverside Public Library.
