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When these went drY theY carted water from springs up on Ridge Road. Cisterns and rain-barrels caught rain off the houses. Toilet fa- cilities of ancient design were to be had only in out-houses on the back of the family lot. Even after a sewer system was installed and a village law abolished the rights to these privies, debate was hot in the council because some die-hards did not wish to be pushed around by such health regulations. The village was laid out upon the use of horse and buggy and did not envision the automobile. There was no effort at railway grade separa- tion. The introduction of the new- comers to the village scene via the railway was marred by a huddle of make-shift stores, mostly on W'est Railroad Avenue (Green Bay Road). The railway station was on the other side of the tracks; now it serves as the freight house. Needs were many. There were per- ennial efforts at town meetings. Local newspapers appeared from time to time and died. Evanston tried to annex Wilmette but sufficed with supplying the village with water for many years. "Coal oil" for both homes and street lighting gave way to gas. For many years wooden side- walks sufficed, often on only one side of the street. A fire station was to be built on the eastern edge of the pres- ent post office grounds; for yearS it would serve a volunteer brigade. Police protection was hardly visible. When the old frame school house was supplanted in 1892 by a new brick Central School, it forecast fur- ther progress. Now A. E. Logie and Miss Katherine Joy (Mrs. David Col- bert of Evanston) would supply two years of high school to local young- sters, who in turn would finish at Evanston. The Village Council, after years of meeting in old Library Hall at Cen- tral and Wilmette Avenues, would build the first formal Village Hall at the present site. When that was out- grown it would be moved to become a remodeled residence at 625 Park Avenue. T.ibrary Hall would also serve for dances and dancing classes, the incipient Public Library and numerous types of village gaiherings. The first active local Protestant religious cooperative movement had begun to break up some years ear- lier. It had been composed of Bap- tist, Congregational, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Protestant Epis- copal denominations. The Congrega- tionalists had separated in 1875 and built their first wooden meeting house some years later. The first cornerstone for St. Augustine's Epis- copal Church was laid in 1898. As the wooden sheathing of that building arose, a carpenter was to scrawl upon it the legend that on that day the United States went to war with Spain over the Cuban question and the sinking of the Battleship Maine. Young men like David Colbert were to write back to the local paper tell- ing of the Cuban campaign. Entertainment was limited. The country club was sprouting its wings. A nine-hole golf course was to hug the lake shore. Numetous small groups organized to play cards and dance and to give gracious dinner parties. As Evanston felt the influ- ence of Northwestern University, or- ganized music, lectures and other cultural opportunities became avail- able. The Wilmette Woman's Club building and the Carnegie Free Pub- lic Library would soon be under way. Now and then there was a scurry of interest when Fountain Square in Evanston was made the terminus of one of the great Chicago bicycle road races. By and large, social affairs centered around church and country club. 16