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The city dates its founding to 1836 and 1837, following the Indian
Removal Act, when Erastus Gary laid claim to 790 acres (3.2 km2) of land
near present-day Warrenville. In 1837, Warren Wheaton laid claim to 640
acres (2.6 km2) of land in the center of town. Jesse Wheaton later made
claim to 300 acres (1.2 km2) of land just west of Warren's. In 1848,
they gave the Chicago and Galena Railroad three miles (5 km) of right-of-way,
upon which railroad officials named the depot Wheaton. In 1850, ten blocks
of land were platted and anyone who was willing to build immediately
was granted free land. In 1853 the lots were surveyed and a formal plat
for the city was filed with the county. The city was then incorporated
in 1859 with Warren serving as its first President. The city was re-incorporated
on March 1, 1890 when the first mayor of the city was selected, Judge
Elbert Gary, son of Erastus Gary and founder of Gary, Indiana.
In 1857 the Illinois state legislature authorized an election to be held
to decide the question of whether the DuPage county seat should remain
in Naperville or be moved to the more centrally located Wheaton, which
was also on the Chicago and Galena Railroad. Naperville won the election
by a vote of 1,542 to 762. Hostility between the two towns continued for
the next decade and another election was held in 1867, of which Wheaton
narrowly won by a vote of 1,686 to 1,635. At a cost of $20,000, the City
of Wheaton quickly built a courthouse to house a courtroom, county offices
and a county jail.
The building was dedicated on July 4, 1868.[2] However,
animosity between the two towns continued, and in 1868, as records were
moved from the old Naperville courthouse to the new one in Wheaton, Naperville
refused to turn over remaining county records, prompting a band of Civil
War veterans from Wheaton to conduct what came to be known as the Midnight
Raid on the Naperville courthouse. As Wheatonites fled back on Wheaton-Naperville
Road, Napervillians were able to secure some last remaining records, which
were taken to the Cook County Recorder in Chicago for safekeeping.
During
this time, Naperville was mounting a lawsuit against Wheaton accusing election
judges of leaving their posts during the vote. As the courts deliberated
the fate of the county seat, the records were destroyed in the Great Chicago
Fire of 1871. Shortly thereafter, Wheaton was officially proclaimed the
county seat.[3] As demand for space increased, the courthouse was rebuilt
in 1887 at a cost of $69,390, modeled after the courthouse in Aledo. This
structure was used for the next 94 years until the county's rapid growth
prompted the building of a brand new complex.[4] The old courthouse is
listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and was formerly used
by National-Louis University until National-Louis moved to Lisle in 2004.
It is currently being developed into luxury condominiums. On November
2, 1990, the courthouse moved to a building about two miles (3 km) west
in a new 57 acre complex at the corner of County Farm Road and Manchester
Road. It was built at a cost of $52,500,000 and includes a 300,000-square-foot
(30,000 m2) judicial building. In 1992, the county sued the architect and
contractor for $4 million after several employees became ill from the ventilation
system.[5] In the end, however, the county received only $120,000 for minor
repairs and the jury sided with the defendants, finding that the alleged
problems were caused, primarily, by the county's negligent operation and
maintenance of the ventilation system. |
