| Franklin Park
is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States.
The population was 19,800 at the 2004 census.
Cook County, 13 miles (21 km)
W of the Loop. Franklin Park has more than met the expectations
of Lesser Franklin, who settled in the area in the 1890s.
He envisioned an industrial center that would blend
with residential neighborhoods. A century later, Franklin
Park boasted over 1,200 industries and related businesses
covering 60 percent of the community. German farmers
settled in the 1840s.
By the mid-1870s the Atlantic
& Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road tracks of the
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad)
laid tracks and built a station on Elm Street. The Minneapolis,
St. Paul, & Sault Ste Marie (Soo Line) and the Indiana
Harbor Belt railroads followed.
In the early 1890s Franklin,
a real-estate broker, purchased four farms totaling
600 acres (2.4 km2). At the railroads' intersection
he built the community's center. He named the town Franklin
Park and enticed prospective buyers with parades along
LaSalle Street in Chicago. He offered free Sunday train
rides to the property. A pavilion was built on Rose
Street where potential customers received free food
and beer, heard speeches, danced, and participated in
contests. Lot sales exceeded a million dollars.
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