From Phil Stenholm:
Another installment about History of Evanston Fire Department
GOLF, ANYONE?
Despite budget cuts that kept it from modernizing to the extent recommended by the NBFU in 1935, the Evanston Fire Department of the 1930’s was a highly-respected outfit, so much so that the Village of Golf — a small, wealthy enclave located adjacent to the Glen View Club on the north-side of Golf Road west of Harms Woods, three miles west of the Evanston city limits, and five miles from EFD Fire Station # 3 — contracted for fire protection from Evanston in 1937.
As part of the contract, Evanston agreed to respond with one engine company (normally Engine Co. 3), one truck company (normally Truck Co. 2), and a chief officer to any report of fire received from the Village of Golf. Additional EFD companies would respond if needed.
The cost to the Village of Golf was an annual flat-fee to be paid regardless of the number of times the EFD might respond to incidents in the village and without regard to the severity of any given structure fire. The arrangement with the Village of Golf lasted until the Glenview Rural Fire Department (later known as the Glenbrook Fire Protection District) was created after World War II.
The two suburban fire departments that surrounded the Village of Golf at that time — Morton Grove and Glenview — were mostly all-volunteer, with small-capacity pumpers and no ladder trucks, so despite being five miles and an average drive-time of 12-15 minutes from Golf (depending on traffic and weather conditions), the EFD could provide both front-line first-class fire apparatus as well as sufficiently trained manpower to operate the rigs immediately upon arrival.
The Evanston Fire Department also was contracted with the Village of Niles Center (later known as “Skokie”) going back to the 1920’s to respond to alarms in College Hill, a somewhat isolated area located in the northeast corner of Niles Center that had joined Evanston School District 65 and Evanston Township High School District 202 because its residents wanted their children to attend nearby ETHS and be part of the greater Evanston community.
College Hill was part of a much-larger five square-mile tract of land that Evanston had planned to eventually annex to provide space for it burgeoning immigrant and African-American population. However, the Village of Niles Center unexpectedly annexed the land in the 1920’s, leading to hand-wringing and threats of legal action from the City of Evanston.
The area was very sparsely populated when it was annexed, and it remained so until after World War II. Numerous streets were constructed in this area in the 1920’s in anticipation of a suburban housing boom, but the houses didn’t materialize for a number of years; first because of the Great Depression, and then later because of World War II.
College Hill was bounded by Crawford Avenue on the west, Greenleaf Street on the south, and the City of Evanston on the north and east, so by 1927 — when EFD Fire Station # 4 was completed — three of Evanston’s four fire stations were actually closer to all parts of College Hill than was the mostly-volunteer Niles Center F.D., with its firehouse located at 8031 Floral Avenue in “downtown” Niles Center. In fact, one of the reasons the NBFU had recommended in its 1935 report that a fifth EFD station be constructed in the area of Grant & Central Park was because that location would better serve College Hill.
Thanks to its ambitious annexations of the 1920’s, its corporate limits extended far to the east and north beyond its center core, but Niles Center’s population, culture, and commercial activities in the 1930’s were still essentially located around the intersection of Oakton & Lincoln. In fact, Niles Township High School (later known as Niles East) was constructed at 7700 Lincoln Avenue in 1938 so as to be close to where most of its students resided.
So there were a few scattered homes in College Hill as well as a handful of businesses and commercial structures located on Dempster Street, Church Street, and East Prairie Road, and the Evanston Fire Department responded to alarms in this area until January 1949, when the Village of Skokie opened its east-side fire station at 8340 Hamlin Avenue and was able to provide fire protection to College Hill.
The only other nearby suburban fire department that was under contract to respond to alarms outside its own corporate limits in the 1930’s was the Winnetka Fire Department, which responded to alarms in the Village of Kenilworth, the Village of Northfield, and to unincorporated county areas of New Trier Township located between Winnetka and Wilmette, including “no-man’s land” on Sheridan Road, and the exclusive Woodley Road neighborhood northwest of Wilmette.
FRONT-LINE APPARATUS OF OTHER NEARBY SUBURBAN FIRE DEPARTMENTS – CIRCA 1937
WILMETTE:
1915 American LaFrance Type 75 750-GPM TCP .
1923 American LaFrance Type 67 city-service truck
WINNETKA:
1919 American LaFrance Type 75 750-GPM TCP
1926 American LaFrance Type 14 quad
NILES CENTER (SKOKIE):
1926 Ahrens-Fox 1000-GPM TCP
1937 Pirsch Junior 750-GPM / 60-foot aerial quad
GLENCOE:
1924 American LaFrance Type 75 750-GPM TCP
NILES:
1936 Pirsch 750-GPM TCP
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#1 by Phil Stenholm on October 23, 2021 - 2:03 AM
THE GEOGRAPHIC SHAPING OF EVANSTON
It was home to the Potawatomi people for centuries, but the area was settled by European-Americans in the 1830’s and 1840’s after the Indian Removal Act of 1830 sent the Potawatomi to a reservation west of the Mississippi River.
Evanston was known as “Ridgeville” or “Grosse Point” to the early settlers. A few of the residents struck it rich in California gold fields in 1849-50, and returned home wealthy men.
The campus of Northwestern University was established in 1853, on a site discovered by university trustee Orrington Lunt. The town built southwest of the campus was to be called “Orrington” to honor the man who discovered it, but it was eventually decided to name the town “Evanston,” in honor of Northwestern University President John Evans.
The Chicago & North Western Railroad (C&NW RR) main-line connecting Chicago to points north was constructed in 1855, with depots established at Lincoln Avenue (later known as “Main Street”), College Avenue (later known as “Davis Street”), and Central Street.
Evanston was officially incorporated as a town on December 29, 1863.
When it was incorporated, the town was one square-mile, with its bulls-eye center at what would later become “Fountain Square” (Davis & Orrington). The original Town of Evanston was bounded by Lake Michigan to the east, Hamilton Street / Crain Street to the south, Wesley Avenue to the west, and Foster Street on the north. The Town of Evanston was governed by an elected five-man Town Board, who elected the Town Board President.
Evanston annexed the unincorporated “East Ridge” on July 22, 1872, and then reincorporated as a village on October 19, 1872, governed by an elected village board and village board president. When it was annexed, the East Ridge was bounded by Lake Michigan on the east, New Trier Township to the north, Foster Street on the south, and Asbury Avenue to the west.
The annexation of the East Ridge increased Evanston’s tax base, and reincorporating as a village permitted Evanston to levy taxes to provide municipal services such as water, police, fire, garbage collection, and street maintenance, and to issue bonds for civic projects, including the $100,000+ high pressure waterworks built in 1874.
In January 1873 Evanston annexed additional land on which houses were already being built, as the village was quickly expanding to the west. This area was bounded by Church Street on the south, McDaniel Avenue on the west, Grant Street (east of Hartrey Avenue) and Simpson Street (west of Hartrey Avenue) to the north, and Wesley Avenue (south of Foster Street) and Asbury Avenue (north of Foster Street) on the east.
Meanwhile, the Village of South Evanston — separate and distinct from the Village of Evanston — was incorporated on January 14, 1873. South Evanston’s borders were Lake Michigan to the east, Howard Street (and the City of Chicago) on the south, Florence Avenue to the west, and Greenleaf Street (east of the C&NW RR tracks) and Crain Street (west of the C&NW RR tracks) to the north. The original Village of South Evanston included “Germania,” the area between Calvary Cemetery and Howard Street east of the CM&StP RR (“Milwaukee Road”) tracks (now the CTA tracks).
The Village of Evanston annexed unincorporated “North Evanston” on April 22, 1874. North Evanston was bounded by Evans Avenue (now known as “Lincolnwood Drive”) to the west, New Trier Township on the north, Asbury Avenue on the east, and Grant Street (east of Hartrey Avenue) and Simpson Street (west of Hartrey) to the south.
In September 1874 the Village of Evanston officially annexed a small area of land located between Greenleaf and Hamilton streets east of the C&NW RR tracks that both Evanston and South Evanston had claimed since South Evanston’s incorporation in January 1873.
On April 26, 1886, Evanston annexed a square-mile of land bounded by Wesley Avenue on the east, Crain Street to the south, McDaniel Avenue on the west, and Church Street to the north. The Mark Manufacturing Company plant was constructed on the far south side of this area, at the southwest corner of Dempster & Dodge, conveniently adjacent to the C&NW RR Mayfair Division freight tracks.
The Village of Evanston annexed the Village of South Evanston on February 20, 1892, after South Evanston’s water-supply system failed and Evanston refused to provide any more water to South Evanston unless and until South Evanston agreed to be annexed. The Village of Evanston reincorporated as a city after annexing South Evanston, with a mayor & city council form of government, with two aldermen representing each of the city’s seven wards
After annexing the Village of Rogers Park in 1893, the City of Chicago attempted to annex the City of Evanston in 1894, but the annexation attempt failed, despite the two South Evanston wards voting heavily in favor of the annexation proposal. However, the Germania neighborhood of South Evanston (south of Calvary Cemetery and east of the Milwaukee Road tracks) was annexed by the City of Chicago on November 7, 1914.
The Chicago Sanitary District Canal (known as the “North Shore Channel” was constructed during 1908, and in the process intersections like Dewey & Noyes and Colfax & Asbury were obliterated, as was Cooper Avenue (now the west driveway of Fire Station # 3).
The City of Evanston annexed what is now the southwest corner of Evanston on May 6, 1913, the area that is west of Florence Avenue, south of Crain Street, north of Howard Street, and east of the North Shore Channel (Chicago Sanitary District Canal). This area included the “city dump,” located at the southwest corner of Dodge & Oakton. The dump was closed and re-developed in the 1960’s, and is now home to Dawes School, James Park, and Mount Trashmore.
The last of Evanston’s annexations happened piecemeal over a 17 year period extending from from 1916-33.
On May 2, 1916, a square mile of land bounded by Simpson Street on the south, Lincolnwood Drive on the east, Crawford Avenue on the west, and Isabella Street (east of Highland Avenue) and Central Street (west of Highland Avenue) on the north was annexed.
On April 15, 1924, a small triangle of land bounded by Highland Avenue, Central Street, and Gross Point Road was annexed, and then on May 18, 1926, the “High Ridge” area (located south and east of the Village of Wilmette, west of Gross Point Road, and north of Central Street) was annexed.
On May 15, 1928, a small rectangle of land bounded by Central Street, Crawford Avenue, Harrison Street, and Gross Point Road was annexed, and finally on March 13, 1933, land bounded by Simpson Street on the north, Emerson Street on the south, Lincolnwood Drive to the west, and McDaniel Avenue to the east was annexed, although the south half of it — including New England Village — was eventually annexed by the Village of Skokie.
#2 by John on October 21, 2021 - 8:11 PM
This is a great series. I feel like I know some of these guys.