General Information
Population:11,635(based on 2000 census)
Size: 2.4 Square Miles
Government: Village manager, elected President and six Trustees
Incorporation Date: October 24, 1880
Median Age: 38.6
Number of Households: 4,092
Median Household Income: $78,889
Average Home Sale Price: $604,998
Average Condo Price: $205,231
Village Web Site:www.river-forest.us
History
River Forest today is a community of comfortable homes, excellent
schools, an abundance of churches and no industry to mar its residential
character. But it was the Village's location in a "beautiful
woodland skirting the shores of the river of the plains" that
encouraged George Bickerdike and Mark Noble, to establish River
Forest's first, and only, "industry".
In 1828, the two Yorkshiremen built a sawmill on the east bank
of the Des Plaines River, just north of Lake Street, that provided
sawn lumber for the homes and businesses of early settlers until
after the Civil War.
One of those pioneers was Ashbel Steele, River Forest's first permanent
settler who purchased 117-acres on both sides of the Des Plaines
River in 1830. Steele built a substantial home for his wife Harriet
and their nine children in 1836 in an area bounded by what is today
Thatcher Ave. and the River, Madison St. and the Metra tracks.
Ashbel Steele, a mason and builder by trade, was responsible for
many early buildings in River Forest including Harlem School at
Lake Street and Park Ave. Today the landmark red brick building
serves as the administrative office for Elementary School District
90.
Steele held two elective offices in Cook County. In 1834 he was
elected coroner and in 1840 he won a race for sheriff. But it was
the many services he provided other homesteaders that made Ashbel
Steele such as important figure. In 1846 Steele built Montezuma
Hall on the southeast corner of Lake St. and Thatcher, a public
house that served as an inn, tavern, post office, general store
and stagecoach stop. Steele's land remained in his family until
1917 when his heirs sold the site to the Forest Preserve District
of Cook County.
Beginning in 1857, River Forest was governed by the Proviso Township
Board. Augustin Porter, an early homesteader who was considered
"an intelligent and enterprising gentleman"was made Township
Assessor and also named Justice of the Peace in River Forest. Porter
held court in a small building he added at the rear of the fine
brick house he built at the corner of Railroad Ave. and John St.
(now Central and Bonnie Brae).
"Thatcher" is one of the most recognizable family name
in River Forest - and also one of the most confusing. It is the
surname of two unrelated families who arrived in the community at
approximately the same time and whose children intermarried, creating
an even greater genealogical maze!
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David Cunningham Thatcher, a wealthy merchant who owned an arms
and ammunition store in Chicago, purchased 640-acres on both sides
of the Des Plaines River in 1854. He built a large home facing Lake
St. to house his 13 children.
The two Solomon Thatchers, senior and junior, came to River Forest
in 1860. The father was not active locally, but Solomon Jr., like
David Thatcher, was an important Church of River Forest.
Solomon Thatcher Jr. married Clara Thatcher, David Thatcher's daughter,
and purchased a tract of land west of Lathrop Ave. between Chicago
Ave. and Lake St., from his father-in-law that he divided into lots.
He donated lots to both the Methodist Church and the Catholic Church
and set an example by building an elegant home for himself at 518
Keystone that is still standing.
Commercial development has grown at a phenomenal rate along Lake
St. between Harlem Ave. and Lathrop in recent years. But for the
reluctance of Henry Quick and his son John Henry, curmudgeonly co-owners
of most of this land for almost half a century, development might
have occurred more than a century earlier.
The Quicks arrived here in the 1850s from Harlem, New York and
proceeded to buy most of the land on the southeast end of River
Forest and the north end of Forest Park. As the only landlords for
miles around, father and son exercised complete control over the
area and their arbitrary methods and manners earned them the animosity
of their neighbors.
Amos Squire Pack was another River Forest pioneer who had a more
positive impact on the community. He ran a general store, but he
is best known as one of three men appointed by a Cook County judge
to conduct the 1880 election at which River Forest residents voted
to remove themselves from Proviso Township government and establish
a self-governing municipality. The election was a preemptive strike
to defeat a move by neighboring Harlem (Forest Park) to open saloons
in their community.
In recent years there have been many changes in the Lake St. commercial
corridor. In 1993 the Wieboldts building at Harlem Ave. and Lake
Street was replaced by River Forest Town Center. Plans are now on
the drawing board for Town Center II, a continuation of the original
shopping center to be developed west of Bonnie Brae.
Other improvements within the past decade include renovation of
the Laidlaw warehouse at 8020 Madison St. for use as the River Forest
Community Center and construction of a new Village Hall/Police Department
complex after the former municipal building was heavily damaged
by fire in 1994.
-Jean Guarino
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