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Wilmette Bids for ·Populatilm of 50,000 .&a wt ·a n aow ··,.... Ia ae ··· dneu.a el a tallltarF Nwer Q'ltela, JUt .. ...... ······ J'Oar , ..., . . ' Ia well Wll·el&e, JDiaole, we It . .~ltaMe for ,... to UTe J'OU wewer weniM ··· Ia Ina tile aala &e .... ..rkWAJ" .,. ... willie ..... *"·' - J'Oar JI'OteriJ. t. II J'Oa teelte to llaTe ai Jal Ia J'OU NniMI at AltoTe··eatlea.. Uae, ,... wiD tleaH follow la1tne· Uoat at llere ltelow. L We wUI ··II to Joa eoatrae& for tltla work ··· oar Jrleet re· eeiJI of tlte follnwl·· lafonaaUoaa Fall ···e of owaer Lot Fael·· wb& a&ree& ·to· ····r f. We llaYe aa4e ana·.e···&· wiUl tile wnaette Slate Baak of WD· ·!~z.. _llllaola, to neelYe eertllet Wilmette-17,000 inhabitants I That · is the Wilmette of this day, year of 1928. But we present a not so hypothetical question : What win be the population of Wilmette in two years, five years, ten years, a score of years as those overcrowding Chicago push northward? But that question prompts another : "How many of tbe 17,000 citizens of Wilmette today KNOW Wilmette, how many know to what extent the village may grow, how many realize that in five years the widt-h and breadth of the viUage has stretched with the elasticity of a huge rubber band until today to the west, to the north and south there is an area approximating 2200 acres-a few square miles. F"lftt Aaaesatioa I y...,. - · Six years ago Wilmet~e annexed a parcel of land in what was Grosse Point, a village which had existed for years dating back before the memory of this writer _started functioning. Two years ago there another annexation and with that action Grosse Point lost identity as a village ; it simply was swallowed up by Wilmet.te. And Wilmette became what it is today, one of the largest suburbs in the country. Perhaps there are larger ones: but we don't know their names· · But to repeat : How many persons in Wilmette know just how large the village has grown? The answer would be "very few." The writer asked one of the officials of the village this question and he answered: "I guess three or four of us." T·h at would seem to answer the seco!ld question. The first will be an- t....,..u fer ....,.. lattallaUoae. Tlllt wiD aeee1lltate 7oar llpl·· aat ntlll'lll·· to tal4 Baak, oar Coatraet »nteriT eueate4, to· ·etlter wiUl 70ar eerUie4 elaeek for .......................... Toars llelt bJ .at llaak ··UI work It ··»leW. ··· AJJI'OTe4 liT tile · ..-..r for tile Vlllqe of Wll· ·ette, IDiaols. I. Ia orter te H altle to take ean of J'Oa ·· .-..,.. work we re·teet· faiJJ' atk tlaa& 70· let ·· llear In· yoa at oaee, of eo·ne, tllat It, If 70a an lat·r.tt.d. APID development is being registered in the northern section of western R the Wilmette. The residence pictured is to be built for A. W. Drucker Bills Realty, Inc. subdivision, Indian Hill Estates. It is a twelve room resi- · in Terr lndr, dence designed by Ralph Stetzel. Construction is scheduled to start May IS. The house will be located on a three acre site on Mohawk read. swered as the years roll by. When the first process of annexation was consumma·ted five years ago Wilmette leaped the Ridge which had BF Oat A.·. Slellaaek been the village's boundary line. The BeJIF to Box tM, BYaat&H, DL new territory stretched principally to Or Call UaiYenlv 1117 the nor>th and west. To the north it reached Linden avenue, the southern boundary of the Indian Hill Golf course; west to Locust road at t·he northern end ; south to Isabella street extending west as far as ·the Westmoreland Country dub, the curving Reinwald road forming the limits line from the north. Better Goyerameat s-.ht So much for the boundaries of the new annexation. There is an interesting story that tells of how Wilmette happened to expand. Ten years ago Grosse Poi.n t was made up of farmers with truck farms. But there was a village government. But evidently the government was not functioning successfully, for the citizens sought annexation to Kenilworth. The · information is imparted that KenilFIVE MINUTES worth declined to take in Grosse Point territory. The slow development was FROM the reason the Grosse Pointers sought to be annexed. There were no sewWILME'ITE - GLENCOE - WINNETKA ers, no ' street lights, and bad roads. In view of these conditions it is not Have yoa lftn the Yery nctnt development in Kenilsurprising that Grosse Point sought a change to better itself. The discourworth Gardens, at Kenilworth Aven~e and the Ridge? aged officialdom voted to disorganize and then for a couple of years there Wit:b spring in t:he air and daylipt uvinp alracly was no government at all. herr. it will he well worth your wbilr, any evening, But there were progressive people to take the few moments nec:euary to inspect this in Grosse Point, perhaps not many, deniQpment. but enough to make a noise that could be heard. An election was held which Two new bo~~~ta are ready for occupancy, while six resulted in the hottest kind of a contest, the _ issue being whether or not more are now ia the coarse of coaatractioa. Lots Grosse Point would ask Wilmette -to are still available as low as S7o a foot-jlllt three "·t ake them in," and t'he result was short blocks from electric aad steam traaaportation. favOrable for the annexation plan by a narrow margin. That much settled the Pointers F« lull ,.rita1cn c.ll made overtures to Wilmette. And Wilmette was found not to be opposed to the plan. Wilmette voted on this annexation-the first of Grosse Point-six years ago and it went over laco1p0nttd big, the vote being about 8 to 1 in favor· WJLMETTE-Oppoait:t Vilbat Hall-Wilmette 373 T~at explains the first step in expaD!uon. It was three years ago that the fur-....~---------------------------~llther expansion took place, which gives CANmi.-CODAD Cuallriiidiua eo....,' Lac. MOUAT &. FLAHERTY the Wilmet-te of todav such a vast area. It came about through the efforts of Real Estate men, who previous to the first annexation had anticipated and had purchased many acres of land from Grosse Point farmers. Among ·t hese were A. -H. Kraus, Hoyt King, and John H. Shaffer. These Re_!ll Estate men got together and drew up a petition calling for the second annexation of Grosse Point territory by Wilmette. There were enough signers and for a second time the Wilmette voters had a chance to decidf' if they desired expansion. They showed that they did at the polls, but this is too recent to make it necessary to go into detail to tell about it here. · B. Chaa1e ia Map The map, however, shows some big changes sinces that annexation. Wilmette now on its northern boundary extends west on a line with Avoca road, and juts north probably 500 feet to reach a new north limit at the north branch of the Chicago river, a stream which at this point is little more than fifteen feet wide. The west boundary line follows the river southward as far as Lake street. From the river to the east side of the Northwestern and North Shore electric tracks, Lake s.treet is the southern boundary. T·h ere is a short break from the tracks at Wilmette avenue .before the west boundary shifts and then the limit is straight south to Central street. The southern boundary remains at Central street running to old Wilmette at the Ridge. The development of the annexed territory until a year ago was not rapid. But in the past twelve months there has been much activity· In particular the section, or sub-division, called Indian Hill Estates has shown much activity. Other subdivisions closer to the Ridge also have been · spurting along. Denlopmeat Slow at F"~nt The si()W development was attributed to the lack of improvements. Work was started on sewers in some sections three years ago, but it failed because the contractor who had won the contract had made too low a bid and could not produce. That, it is said, put the work baek a year and a half. At the present time another contrac(Continued on ·Page 61)