River Forest, Illinois

The site of present-day River Forest was once home to prehistoric Native Americans who constructed large effigy mounds throughout the region. Soon after the American Revolution, Chippewa, Menominee, and Potawatomi Indians moved onto the landscape, but by 1835 most native tribes were gone under the terms of the 1833 Treaty of Chicago. On the east bank of the Des Plaines River, a steam powered sawmill built in the 1830s provided lumber for an expanding population, and its future co-owner, Ashbelle Steele, became the first European settler in the county when he arrived in 1836. In 1859 he contracted for the landmark brick Harlem School. The Pennsylvania Turnpike, now Lake Street, was laid out in 1842 as one of the first planked roads in America. In 1880 prosperous settlers influenced by the temperance movement incorporated River Forest, and the town installed electric street lights in 1890. In 1914 the River Forest Park District purchased Washington Square to prevent an ice manufacturer from coming into town, and in 1917 the Forest Preserve District of Cook County purchased a portion of Thatcher Woods to preserve an oak savanna. The town grew from 1,000 residents in 1894 to 8,829 by 1930. The River Forest Tennis Club, founded in 1905 and featuring a Frank Lloyd Wright clubhouse, was home to the National Clay Courts Championship from 1935-1966. Trailside Museum, a converted Victorian mansion built by Abraham J. Hoffman in 1874, serves as a local nature center.

River Forest, Illinois · United States