RiversideIn 1868, Emery Childs led a group of businessmen in the development one of America's first planned suburban communities. The 1,600-acre tract is located about 8 miles west of Downtown Chicago on the Des Plaines River. At the time it was owned by David Gage, who joined the Riverside Improvement Company as a partner. The developers hired Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux (the designers of NYC's Central Park) to, "...combine the conveniences peculiar to the finest modern cities, with the domestic advantages of the most charming country, in a degree never before realized." Although growth of the community was delayed by the 1871 Chicago Fire, it became a pioneer of early suburbanization in the United States. The village was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970. I visited Riverside briefly in the Summer of 2011, walking a small loop (Scottswood Road south to Fairbank Road north) in the southwest part of the village in search of some surviving structures mentioned in the village's 1871 company report, which is the source for the historic woodcuts below.
William LeBaron Jenny's Swiss Gothic water tower is the iconic architectural feature of Riverside and was part of the community from its beginning. The well house and pump house were added around 1890, and the original wooden tank was replaced after a fire in 1913. Distinguishing features include a sloping cut-stone base, a pier arcade with pointed arched keystones, a catwalk supported on stone corbels and the pointed cap roof. (history)
Sitting across Riverside road from the train station is the Riverside Stores building, constructed of red and Milwaukee brick with cut stone trimmings. Although this building is pictured in the 1871 report, it is not listed on the Riverside Community website - could this be a replacement building built later?
Riverside Presbyterian Church is an English Domestic style building designed by John C. Cochrane that was built around 1879 on the site of the original Riverside Church, which was destroyed by fire.
The L.Y. Schermerhorn Residence is a Victorian-style structure designed by William LeBaron Jenny. Schermerhorn was a partner in the engineering firm hired by the Riverside Improvement Company to implement Olmsted and Vaux's plan for Riverside.
The Coonley Playhouse is a Prairie-Style building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as a school building. It was converted to a residence in 1919 on a design by William Drummond.
The Freeark Residence is an International Style building designed by Lawrence Kenney and John Vinci, who were students of Mies Van der Rohe.
The Hoffmann tower and dam site was a natural dam originally named Riverside Ford. It was augmented with a man-made dam around the late 1820s to provide power for a mill. Olmsted originally wanted a curved dam on the site, which eventually got built in 1907 when brewer George Hoffmann, Jr. bought the property and developed the area into an amusement complex called Niagara Park. The tower was modeled after Dellwood Park in Lockport, IL. The amusement park continued until prohibition and pollution got the better of it. The pollution issue led to modifications of the curved dam in 1928 and 1936. The dam was replaced with a straight dam in 1950. Although removal of the dam was proposed in 2003 to restore the ecosystem, historic preservation and aesthetics ultimately prevailed.
This boulder marks the old river crossing used by the Indians on the trail from north to south, by the fur traders, and by the early settlers in the development of the west. Dedicated July 4, 1932, Women's Reading Group, Riverside, Illinois, Chicago Historical Society
The Dore Cottage is an Eastlake style building designed by Olmstead, Vaux and Co. It was built around 1869 for John Clarke Dore, who was the first Superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools, a president of the Chicago Board of Trade and an Illinois State Senator.
Rev. 19 December 2011 |
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