| Berwyn is a city
in Cook County, Illinois, co-existent with Berwyn Township,
which was formed in 1901 after breaking off from Cicero
Township. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total
population of 54,016. It is a suburb of Chicago. Berwyn
will celebrate its 100th Anniversary in 2008.
The land that today makes up
Berwyn was originally fairly marshy. As the glaciers
receded at the end of the last ice age, a giant body
of water known as Ancient Lake Chicago was created.
In 1846, the first land in "Berwyn"
was deeded to Theodore Doty who built the eight-foot
wide Plank Road from Chicago to Ottawa. This thoroughfare
became what is now Ogden Avenue in South Berwyn. In
1856, Thomas F. Baldwin purchased 347 acres (1.40 km2)
of land, bordered by what is now Ogden Avenue, Ridgeland
Avenue, 31st Street, and Harlem Avenue, in hopes of
developing a rich and aristocratic community called
"LaVergne." However, few people were interested
in grassy marshland. Mud Lake extended nearly to the
Southern border of today's Berwyn, and the land flooded
regularly during heavy rains. Also the only mode of
transportation to LaVergne was horse and buggy on the
Plank Road.
To encourage people to move to
LaVergne, Baldwin sold an 80-foot (24 m) wide strip
of property to the Burlington and Quincy Railroad in
1862.
|
