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Unlike its neighboring communities, Elk Grove Village developed with
the highway transit system rather than the rail transit system that spurred
earlier development of neighboring communities. Although it was settled
by farmers and its land was used for timber and hunting, the village
was not incorporated until 1956 when the first developer, Centex, began
constructing homes. Today, Craig B. Johnson is the mayor of Elk Grove
Village. Like many of the surrounding suburbs, Elk Grove was mainly settled
by German immigrant farmers. Some of these farmers included Biesterfield,
Rohlwing, Landmeier, Cosman, Beisner, Wiese, and Busse. The Busse family
owns and operates the last farm in Elk Grove, located between Higgins
Road and Oakton Street west of Lively Boulevard. This land was once considered
for a new Chicago Bears stadium, but the idea was withdrawn.
The graves
of Elk Grove's founders can be seen in Elk Grove Cemetery, located within
the Arlington Heights Road interchange with I-90. A herd of elk is also
kept in the Busse Woods (Ned Brown) Forest Preserve at the intersection
of Arlington Heights Road and Higgins Road. Elk Grove Village is a planned
suburban community; Village leaders, in conjunction with Centex Corporation
(who purchased most of the nearby farmland) thoughtfully planned the
entire community during the 1950s and worked to see the plan unfold.
This planned community concept included locations for major highways,
commercial areas, the largest consolidated industrial park in North America,
and residential subdivisions complete with parks, schools, churches,
and shopping centers.
The first residential Centex subdivision was located
near what was then "downtown" Elk Grove, at the intersection
of State (now Arlington Heights Road) and Higgins Road (IL-72) behind
the Park 'n' Shop plaza and Elk Grove Bowl (now known as the Elk Grove
Woods Plaza). The Elk Grove Public Library's first location was inside
a home within this first subdivision. Among the first tenants in the
Park 'n' Shop plaza was Jarosch Bakery, which has been family owned since
its opening and continues to serve residents to this day.
The village
easily doubled in size during the 1960s. By the end of the decade, most
of the land between O'Hare International Airport and I-290/IL-53 was
developed. As the village expanded to the south and west, new roads,
schools, and parks were added to the community. Rupley Elementary was
the first school to be constructed in Elk Grove Village and it was named
after the president of Centex. The Grove Mall was built on the southwest
corner of Arlington Heights and Biesterfield Roads to serve residents
in that area. Initially, plans for Grove Mall included banks, retail
stores, a post office, a theater, and other specialty stores; however,
these plans were never fully realized. Land for "phase II" and "phase
III" of Grove Mall were sold to Centex when Schaumburg announced
the groundbreaking of the 200+ acre site for Woodfield Mall. Still, Grove
Mall thrived for decades with Jewel Foods, Ace Hardware, Ben Franklin's,
the Elk Grove Lounge, a pet store, a barber shop, clothing stores, and,
later, Walgreens.
The 1960s also saw the opening of Elk Grove High School,
part of District 214. The Robert E. Haskell Memorial Stadium is named
after the first principal who ran the school until 1974 when he suddenly
died of a heart attack. Since its opening, EGHS has seen continuous increases
in enrollment, expansions of its facilities, and award-winning faculty.
In 1996, EGHS received the Blue Ribbon for Excellence in Education. EGHS
is also home to award-winning athletics and academic teams alike. In
the 1970s, the village developed land west of the expressway in Schaumburg
Township along with industrial development into Addison Township. New
apartment communities were also constructed in Elk Grove along Tonne
Road and Ridge Avenue. These developments have since been sectioned,
and some converted to condominium homes. The village saw continuous residential,
commercial, and industrial growth during the 1980s. However, Lively Junior
High School was no longer needed.
It was shut down and remodeled to become
the new Park District Recreation Center. In the 1990s, after dedicating
29 years of service to the community as the Executive Director of the
Elk Grove Park District, Jack A. Claes' last project before retirement
was the design and development of a 'state of the art' community recreation
center. As appreciation for Mr. Claes' award-winning years of service,
the Board of Commissioners of the Elk Grove Park District dedicated the
Pavilion to Claes upon its completion in 1995. Located at 1000 Wellington
Avenue, the Jack A. Claes Pavilion is located in the center of the Village.
Inside the 110,000-square-foot (10,000 m2) facility is an indoor playground,
fitness center, jungle-themed pool, banquet rooms, arts & craft center,
climbing wall, racquetball and basketball courts and more. The Jack A.
Claes Pavilion is a popular community center for children, and families.
The old Lively Junior High was then used as a storage facility for a
few years before being completely demolished in the early 2000s. http://www.elkgroveparks.org/pavilion.asp?id=222
In recent years, the village has worked to redevelop and boost its image
as an exceptional community. The "downtown" of Elk Grove was
relocated to Biesterfield and Arlington Heights during the 1990s. The
village created a governmental campus by developing the Charles J. Zettek
Municipal Complex, police station, Biesterfield fire station, Elk Grove
Public Library, and Park District Pavilion/administrative office/and
Pirates Cove theme park in the downtown area. This work was completed
at the beginning of the decade; the Elk Grove Village Public Library,
the subject of many floods at its second location along the banks of
Salt Creek near Morrison Boulevard and Brantwood, relocated next door
to the municipal center; and finally, the outdated Grove Mall was condemned
and redeveloped into the Elk Grove Town Center. The Town Center--and
the renovated/expanded Classic Cinemas Elk Grove Theater (which originally
opened in November of 1971 as a single-screen Jerry Lewis Cinema) --were
reconstructed with red brick and connected the library, municipal complex,
and shops with brick-paved walkways, fountains, bronze statues, and,
a few years later, a clock tower. The Municipal Complex is also currently
undergoing a complete renovation. The Police Station was leveled and
is being reconstructed in the same location.
The new facility will integrate
all municipal operations under one roof except for Public Works. In the
2000s, Elk Grove beautified the residential areas of the village. This
effort included the installation of "welcome" signs along major
roads, painting the light poles and traffic lights along Biesterfield
black, creating landscape beds and landscaped medians throughout the
community, installing decorative street lamp posts, installing ornamental,
framed road signs, and installing brick-paved crosswalks along high pedestrian
areas of the community. Recently, ABMC expanded to nearly double its
offices and parking capacity with a towering four-story garage and six-story
office center.
Elk Grove is also in the process of creating a second "downtown" at
Meacham and Biesterfield. A former Super K-Mart center constructed in
1992 was divided to three new stores including a Home Depot, and vacant
land on Meacham Road between the new Steak-n-Shake and Wal-Mart will
soon be developed into a shopping center. An older shopping center at
Rohlwing and Devon Avenue was completely remodeled in an upscale facade.
The center is now home to Charlie's Charhouse, Belvedere Banquets, Country
Inn & Suites, and several restaurants. In the early 1980s, the owners
of Elk Grove Theater sold part of its parking lot to Burger King. In
2005, Burger King closed down, and the new theater owners, Classic Cinemas,
reacquired the land. The six-screen cinema has since added two new stadium
seating auditoriums with new party rooms. In 2006, Elk Grove became one
of the first towns in Illinois to enact a public smoking ban[2]. |
