Every week we publish a historic photo highlighting a story from Naperville’s past from the history archives of Naper Settlement.
Were it not for a bad decision on the part of city officials some 172 years ago, the Naperville we know today could have been a far different place.
Back in 1851, representatives of the Galena and Chicago Railroad came to Naperville asking for right-of-way from the city for the railroad they wanted to build.
Officials said no, opting instead to back the Southwestern Plank Road — literally a road built of wooden planks — that would allow farmers and other travelers to travel by carriage or wagon to Chicago. Backed by eight investors, the road followed the route we now know as Ogden Avenue.
At the time, plank roads were thought to be the smartest way to get crops and livestock to the big city, especially in places too small to warrant a train stop. Beyond that, building a wooden roadway cost roughly one-tenth the price of a rail line.
So, Galena and Chicago Railroad took their rail line to Wheaton and the short-sightedness of Naperville’s decision soon became evident.
“Less than a year after the construction, the defects of the road began to appear,” according to an account in the Naperville Centennial Book. “On the low prairies, the ditches dug along the side of the road filled with water and overflowed. The heavy traffic caused the planks to slip, and a cavity developed underneath. Then, the planks began to decay.”
The deterioration of road and the growth of railroads as a means of moving crops and other goods to Chicago and elsewhere caused many in Naperville to blame the backers for slowing the city’s growth.
Some believed the decision not only hurt the city’s regional prestige, but led to Wheaton being able to take wrest the county seat away from Naperville.
Thirteen years later, Naperville would be given a second chance. When the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad — the first railroad to connect Chicago to the Mississippi River — came knocking with a plan to run its line through town, leaders agreed.
The tracks were laid north of downtown. Just six years later, the railroad’s success was heralded when Naperville newspapers reported the CB&Q had delivered 900 cars of local cattle to the stock yards on Chicago’s South Side.
But the train line did more than move goods. It brought thousands of people to Naperville thanks to Burlington Park, a 60-acre entertainment destination built by the railroad company. (Today, the site is the Burlington Park Forest Preserve.)
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Described as “the most desirable and complete place for recreation in the vicinity of Chicago,” excursion trains would bring Chicago-area people to the park for fun-filled day trips. For the price of a 50-cent round-trip ticket on Sundays and holidays (25 cents for children), entry into the park was free.
In addition to a music hall and a refreshment hall, amenities included a shooting gallery, photograph gallery, grandstand, gambling area, baseball park, race track, bowling alley and picnic tables. A dam built on the DuPage River created a lake for swimming and boating.
It wasn’t unusual to find as many 10,000 people at the park on a busy Sunday. Sometimes, trains would back up as they waited to drop people off at the venue.
Despite its popularity, not everyone in Naperville loved the new addition to town. Some parents refused to let their children visit because of the presence of “rough elements from Chicago” and the objection to partaking in frivilous activities on Sundays.
The park remained in business for 20 years, closing in 1899. In 1922, the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County bought the site for just $852.50.
Had city fathers accepted the Galena and Chicago Railroad’s offer to come through town in 1851, would there have been a “butterfy effect” altering the trajectory of Naperville history?
For example, the train tracks could have run through downtown, as they did in most towns, rather than being north of the business district, making for a very different downtown than we have today. Ogden Avenue might not have been built had Southwestern Plank Road not preceded it. Burlington Park would not have been in Naperville, and therefore the forest preserve that bears its name never created, but maybe the DuPage County seat would have remained here rather than migrating to Wheaton.
That’s the fun of history; we’ll never know.
Andrea Field is the curator of history at Naper Settlement. For more information, go to www.NaperSettlement.org.
Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.