Glen Ellyn Chamber of Commerce VILLAGE HISTORY & PROFILE
GLEN ELLYN HOTEL
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Glen Ellyn
he first European-American Settlers arrived in this area in 1833, after members of the Potawatomi tribe were moved further west by the federal government. Three Babcock brothers made claims of land along what would become St. Charles Road and this settlement was called Babcock’s Grove. As additional families arrived, a log cabin schoolhouse was constructed near Five Corners and was the community’s first public building.
EARLY HISTORY
GLEN THEATER 1927
GLEN ART THEATER 2017
The Stacy family arrived and purchased land on what is now Geneva Road, where they constructed a wayside inn in 1846, a tavern for travelers and farmers on their way to market. This building is still on its original foundation and is Glen Ellyn’s first museum: Stacy’s Tavern Museum. The community became known as Stacy’s Corners. As the railroads planned their first tracks in this region, the residents of Stacy’s Corners tried to persuade the new railroad to lay tracks by their settlement. But Dr. Lewey Newton owned land a mile south in what we now call “downtown” Glen Ellyn. He built a train station at his own expense in 1848 which shifted the center of the community. This stop became known as Newton Station. In 1851, David Kelley became station agent. There was already a Newton town in Illinois, so Kelley named the town “Danby” for his birthplace in Vermont. The quiet country village of Danby changed its named in 1874 to Prospect Park, after some of the men who returned from the Civil War had altered the town’s reputation to “rowdyish” with their behavior. In the 1880s, Prospect Park transformed into a Chicago suburb. Successful businessman and author Thomas E. Hill settled here in 1885 with his wife Ellen. It is thought that the town’s name was changed to Glen Ellyn in honor of the Lewellyn family, and with the Welsh spelling of Ellen Hill’s first name. The creation of Lake Ellyn came by damming up a stream. The local mineral springs also attracted visitors and further changed the town’s character. The Glen Ellyn Hotel and Springs Company enhanced the springs and built Hotel Glen Ellyn, which was struck by lightning and destroyed by fire in 1906. Not long afterwards, the Glen Ellyn Volunteer Fire Department was organized in 1907 and remains vibrant to this day.
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