Building a Village

Henry Fisher in front of his barber shop. Notice the plank sidewalks beneath the gentlemen’s feet.

When conducting research for exhibits, we often find more than what we are specifically looking for. For our upcoming Prohibition and Temperance exhibit, A Fight of Wet vs Dry: A Town Divided, at the Sheldon Peck Homestead, we looked closely at the Village Town Council Meeting Minutes starting at the incorporation of Lombard in 1869. While looking for information about the town’s view on alcohol we found the exciting world of sidewalks and streets.

1869 Plat Map. Notice Maple Street ran the East-West length of the town and

Each street and sidewalk had to be laid out. And it is all there in the pages of the minutes. Sure, it may be in the dry format of bureaucracy but beyond the words the Town of Lombard begins to grow before our very eyes.

Today looking at the sidewalks and streets, it feels as if they have always been there. But this is clearly not true. Once this land was open prairies and then farmland with little need for the connections between homes. As the town began to take shape it was clear these connections were needed to take Lombard from a collection of families living near one another to a town. One of the biggest decisions facing the newly incorporate town is where should the sidewalks and streets go. 

One of the earliest mentions comes from 1869 when the council proposed the construction of Maple Street. The only problem? Widow Donnelley’s barn was in the way. The new town had to solve the problem of only moving the barn. They accomplished this task and today Maple Street is a fairly busy thoroughfare connecting Finley Road to Westmore-Meyers Road. But in 1869 it ran the East-West length of the town, from Elizabeth Street to Martha Street.

The next pages of meeting minutes are filled with petitions from residents asking for plank side walks to be built on their property.  

Town Council meeting minutes 1869, discussing the need to move mrs. donnelly’s barn for the construction of maple street

Town council meeting minutes. ca 1880’s. example of the petitions made to for sidewalks and the expense paid for material

The sidewalks need to be constructed. The planks did not just appear and fall into perfectly constructed sidewalks. In the Town Council meeting minutes, there are pages of bills to be settled for the lumber to construct the sidewalks but also to pay for the labor. The town council needed to institute taxes to pay for the cost of the sidewalks.

Infrastructure is still an important part of the Village of Lombard. When looking at the Village Ordinances today, a key word search for ‘sidewalks’ brings up 68 entries. It seems the foundations, or rather sidewalks, of the past are still very present today.