Lemont at 150 Years: Yesterday & Today

Lemont at 150 Years: Yesterday &

By Pat Camalliere

Lemont is like no other place in Chicagoland.

Set apart from suburban sprawl, occupying the hills, bluffs, and mile-wide valley of the Des Plaines River, surrounded in large part by forests and farms, tucked between picturesque hills and ravines, Lemont has a smalltown flavor that calms one’s soul. To live here is to step away from a hectic world, as if every day were a vacation. Yet, for all that, Lemont is convenient to all Chicagoland has to offer.

Records state that Lemont was established, or started, in 1836, making it one of the oldest towns in Northern Illinois. The Village of Lemont was incorporated on June 9, 1873.

This year Lemont celebrates its 150th Anniversary with a retelling of the history that shaped the town. Lemont’s importance depended on a quirk of geology, glacial deposits, and ancient Lake Chicago that formed the geographic features at this very spot and made Lemont remarkable, not only in its own right, but to the growth of Chicago and the opening of the American continent from sea to sea.

Glaciers and Ancient Lemont

Long ago, glacial ice advanced and retreated over thousands of years, the glaciers acting like giant scoops, driving and piling soil and rock, and carving the landscape into ridges and rings called moraines. This process left behind the unique hills, ravines, and stone and sand deposits that form Lemont today.

When the ice melted, the waters collected into a glacial basin east of a moraine and created a continental divide. Geologists called that basin ancient Lake Chicago. Eventually, two breaks in the moraine found outlets and the basin drained, becoming a smaller lake—Lake Michigan. The two outlets became the Des Plaines River Valley and the Sag Valley. Between these two valleys was an area of high ground, named Mount Forest Island, at the eastern edge of Lemont.

Today Mount Forest Island is a triangular section of land that extends from approximately Kean Avenue west to Route 83, from 107th Street on the south to the Des Plaines River on the north. Much of this area is now Cook County Forest Preserves.

The meeting of waterways at the tip of Mount Forest Island in Lemont later became crucial to westward expansion across the entire United States, providing transportation routes that connected the east and west coasts.

The Potawatomi and Settlement of Lemont

It is not certain how long Native Americans populated the area that became Lemont, but evidence exists that it could be as long as five to six thousand years. A succession of tribes occupied the area, most prominently the Illini. The Potawatomi inhabited Lemont Township as settlement approached.

The Potawatomi had a semi-migratory culture. This meant they lived and farmed in welldeveloped homes and villages in the summer, but left their summer homes for temporary winter camps, where they hunted and fished, following the food supply. They returned to their summer homes, much as “snow-birders” do today.

There were no permanent non-native settlers in the Lemont area prior to the 1830s, but French missionaries and explorers, such as Marquette and Jolliet, explored this area as early as 1673. Fur traders had traveled the rivers and land, and the English established a fur trade with the Indians. Illinois became part of the Northwest Territory of the new United States after the Revolutionary War. This brought early frontiersmen, speculators, merchants, and squatters. These people came from the Eastern States and immigrated from Europe. They were anxious to be the first to see and stake claims on the new land as statehood approached.

When Illinois became a state in 1818, the majority of the population lived downstate. Much needed to be done before homes, farms, and towns could be established in Northern Illinois and the Lemont area. The Potawatomi had to agree to give up their land. Land could not be purchased from the government until it was measured and defined. Settlement only made sense if goods

could be transported to populations that wanted to purchase them, but there was no transportation through the wilderness. Knowing that settlement was inevitable, plans began long before the first settlers arrived.

These plans included treaties with the Potawatomi, surveying of the land, the development of supply routes, and planning of a canal to provide for transportation of goods. Lemont, a critical geographic juncture, became a key location.

The survey of Lemont was completed by 1827. In 1833, Indian tribes signed the Treaty of Chicago and agreed to relocate west of the Mississippi River. Most of the native population left by 1840, but some stayed. Today it is reported that Chicago has the third-largest urban Indian population in the United States, with more than 65,000 Native Americans in the greater metropolitan area.

The first known settler in Lemont was “Mr. Kinney” in 1830, followed by Jeremiah Luther in 1833, and William Derby and Orange Chauncey in 1834. They settled on a cluster of farms in the southeastern sections of Lemont Township, where the land was mostly flat and had rich topsoil.

One early settler was Joshua Bell. Joshua Bell was born in Coot Hill, Caven, Ireland on December 28,

1791. He immigrated to Canada in 1819, arrived in Lemont in 1838, and purchased land near what is now Bell Road and McCarthy Road. In addition to his farm, he established in the same area the Sag Bridge Inn, a general store, a tavern, and a post office. Joshua sold the store and tavern in 1844 and moved to Chicago, but his descendants remained on the Lemont farm for generations.

The Illinois and Michigan Canal

But from Lemont there was still no way to transport what was produced on farms to a market for profit. Waterways were the best option at that time, so plans went ahead to construct the Illinois and Michigan Canal, the canal that was suggested by Father Marquette in 1673. A canal here would make Chicago a major transportation hub, and Lemont farms and businesses would flourish.

In 1673, Father Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, and his partner Louis Jolliet, a fur trader, explored this area. They were told by the Potawatomi who lived here of a route to Lake Michigan by way of the Des Plaines River. Traveling east and north on the Des Plaines, they came to a swampy area called Mud Lake that connected, except for a short portage, to the Chicago River, and from there into Lake Michigan. Having proved that it was possible to travel from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, the explorers realized that a canal between the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers would provide a water route from there to the Illinois River and then into the Mississippi and the Gulf. Branches of the Mississippi flowed throughout the western continent. A canal would open the entire North American interior.

The United States government had long planned to build the canal, but it was not until 1822 that its construction was authorized by Congress. After a series of delays to capitalize the project and develop supply routes, construction began in 1836. The Illinois and Michigan (I&M) Canal that connected the Illinois River to Lake Michigan was not completed until 1848.

THE FIRST SETTLERS IN LEMONT TOWNSHIP— THEN KNOWN AS PALMYRA—PREFERRED THE FLAT, HIGH GROUND SOUTH OF THE OF THE RIVER VALLEY.

Lemont was a primary location on the canal. Not only did the canal run through Lemont, but along it was an ancient Indian trail that ran all the way from Joliet to Lake Michigan on the south side of the planned route, with no need to cross any waters. This trail was improved to become the major supply route for the canal and named for the canal’s main engineer, William Beaty Archer. It survives today as Archer Avenue.

The completed canal opened in 1848, running from the Chicago River to LaSalle, Illinois. Muledrawn canal boats and barges carried cargoes such as lumber, grain, corn, and stone. They also carried passengers and their belongings.

Prior to the canal’s opening, in 1840 Lemont’s population was 2,107 and the city of Chicago’s population was just twice that, 4,470. Due to the canal, by 1850, the population of Chicago jumped to 29,963, and ten years later, in 1860, it had dramatically grown to 112,172 and had become a major industrial center.

Today the I&M Canal has become the nation’s first National Heritage Corridor, providing recreational and educational purposes. The canal no longer carries traffic, except for I&M Canal Boat Tours at LaSalle, Illinois.

Lemont Stone and Quarries

The need for unskilled labor on the canal had brought foreign immigrants to Lemont, many from Ireland, who wished to remain in the area once the canal was finished. Because the project was always short on funds, many of the workers had been paid not in cash but in “land scrip,” a voucher that allowed the worker to purchase land along the canal. Some bought parcels for farms, others bought bottom lands and stony bluffs, where an attractive stone had been discovered during the digging of the canal. Thus was born Lemont’s quarry industry. Soon wealthy

quarry owners sold cut building stone so popular that the Sears Catalog at one time advertised a paint color called “Lemont Stone.”

The stone discovered in Lemont was quality building stone because it had a smooth appearance, occurred in layers thick enough to cut in blocks, had a crushing force that allowed for high weightbearing walls, and had a pale buff color that aged beautifully. With an abundance of labor experienced in cutting stone from the building of the canal and the proximity of the canal for cheap shipping to nearby Chicago, Lemont stone became highly desirable and profitable. Chicago’s famous Water Tower, Holy Name Cathedral, and the Old State Capitol Building in Springfield, Illinois were built with Lemont stone.

Quarries were in operation in Lemont from the 1830s until the early 1900s, when other building materials became favored. It is estimated that at one time as many as fifty quarries were in operation between Lemont and Joliet. With the closing of the quarries, pumping of runoff and spring waters ceased, and the quarries filled, leaving behind Lemont’s picturesque recreational area, the Heritage Quarries. Today an adventure park, The Forge, offers climbing, zip-lining, entertainment, and other recreational activities.

Lemont and the Civil War

The Old Methodist Church, built in 1861, is said to be the largest recruiting station for the Union Army. Records show that eleven percent of Lemont’s population enlisted during the four years of the war. Seven percent of those who fought did not return. The number of recruitments out of Lemont was even greater than the figures show, since quarry workers living in temporary housing and men from other counties increased enlistments. This was probably because Cook County offered larger bounties for enlistments than other counties. Today a memorial to Lemont’s veterans of the Civil War is in Legion Park, across from Lemont’s train station. The 1861 “Old Stone Church” at 306 Lemont Street is the home of the Lemont Area Historical Society and Museum.

WHAT IS NOW THE OLD STONE CHURCH WAS ONCE THE RECRUITING STATION FOR THE CIVIL WAR.

IN 1895, THIS GROUP OF DIGNITARIES—INCLUDING LEMONT’S VILLAGE PRESIDENT JOHN MCCARTHY— WERE HOISTED 95 FEET ABOVE GROUND WITH THE DRAINAGE CANAL BELOW AND THE DES PLAINES RIVER VALLEY SPRAWLING BEHIND.

The Sanitary & Ship Canal

After the growth that took place when the Illinois and Michigan Canal opened, Lemont was not through with building canals. As early as 1862 engineers recognized that, because of low water level in the canal and pollution from the Chicago River, stagnant water in the canal emitted a foul odor and spread disease. Reengineering was stalled, at first due to the Civil War, then followed by attempts that failed to correct the problems.

At that time, the Chicago River flowed into Lake Michigan and carried unsanitary sewage and filth not only into the I&M Canal but into Chicago’s Lake Michigan water supply. In 1885 heavy rainfall carried sewage and storm water into the lake and caused a major typhoid epidemic. In addition, the canal was dependent upon the level of water in the Chicago River and surface water runoff to keep it navigable. Action was demanded, and in 1889 the Sanitary District of Chicago was created.

The proposed solution was extensive and revolutionary: move the Des Plaines River to the north side of the valley and dig a deeper channel in the old river bed, routing the Chicago River into a new canal to the Des Plaines River at Lockport.

This would reverse the flow of the Chicago River from east into Lake Michigan, to west into the canal. So massive was the project that it was jokingly referred to as the “Chicago School of Earth Moving.”

On September 3, 1892, construction began. The portion of the Sanitary Ship & Canal through Lemont was especially challenging, as it ran through a rock base. The canal, 28 miles long, 150 feet wide, and 22 feet deep, required the removal of twelve million cubic yards of rock. Earlier canals, such as the Suez, had been cut through sand or earth. But Lemont, with its experienced quarry workers, was up to the task. Years of quarrying in the area had changed the technology from work done by hand to the development of such machinery as steam shovels, conveyors, grading machines, and every known apparatus for excavating and removing rock. Lemont’s experience not only made the construction of the Sanitary Ship Canal possible, but updated machinery and trained people to build the Panama Canal that followed in 1904 and finished ten years later. But still, some work could only be done by hand.

The project was such a remarkable event that it attracted tourists. The Chicago and Alton Railroad

STEPHEN STREET BRIDGE IN THE FOREGROUND SERVED AS DOWNTOWN LEMONT’S PRIMARY GATEWAY UNTIL 1984. THE SANTA FE RR BRIDGE IN THE BACKGROUND IS STILL IN SERVICE. CIRCA 1900.

published a brochure and ran excursion trains to the site to witness a one-time opportunity to see “…the most stupendous and miraculous example of canal construction and channeling which the word has ever known….”

Smokey Row

During the late 1890s Lemont became known for its notorious Smokey Row. The sin strip called Smokey Row had developed to suit the tastes of the men who built the I&M Canal in the 1840s, and flourished thereafter for barge, quarry, and railroad men. After the close of the Columbian Exhibition, men throughout Chicagoland looking for gambling, liquor, drugs, loose women, and other such amusements found them in Lemont, where two train lines dropped them off in the heart of the district, one running a “Gambler’s Special” on weekends. With the addition of workers on the Sanitary Canal, by 1895 it was estimated that over 100 such dives operated in Lemont.

The presence of Smokey Row set up a conflict between those who favored the economic benefits of the sin strip—such as revenue to finance better schools and other community improvements— and those who preferred their town be recognized as the Village of Faith. Smokey Row began to decline after the completion of the Sanitary Ship Canal when the workers left.

The Cal-Sag Channel

And still Lemont’s digging days were not over. After almost seventy years and four generations of canal transportation, at low water levels the Sanitary Canal still flowed the wrong way on occasion. In a situation similar to the circumstances that led to construction of the Sanitary Ship Canal, polluted water from the Little Calumet River flowed into Lake Michigan and contaminated Chicago’s water supply. Once again, the solution involved reversing a river. A small “feeder canal” that ran through the Sag Valley would be replaced by a major canal that would run through the Sag Valley and connect the Sanitary Canal to the Little Calumet River at Lemont.

So, Chicago built yet another canal, the Cal-Sag Channel, so named because it connected the Little Calumet River through the Sag Valley to the Sanitary Canal at the eastern edge of Lemont. This new canal created direct access from Calumet Harbor to the Sanitary Canal, providing for shipping from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River, and making Calumet Harbor Chicago’s primary port. Today 3000 barges travel the CalSag annually, as well as pleasure and other boats.

The Metropolitan Sanitary District began construction on the Cal-Sag in 1911 and completed it in 1922. The canal consumed a large portion of the Sag Valley, displacing homes and farms. The Forest Preserve District of Cook County purchased the remaining along the canal’s route, and it was allowed to revert to forest. A large wetland in the Sag Valley was improved by dams and levees to create the Saganashkee Slough on 107th Street for recreational purposes.

In the 1830s, settlers had cleared the forests that surrounded Lemont for farmland. After the 1920s the process was reversed: farmland was turned back to forests. The Palos Forest Preserves now occupy the majority of the land that was once Mount Forest Island and the Sag Valley. The rivers and streams that once ran through the area are original, but the lakes, ponds, waterfalls, and other features are manmade, created by

THE BASEMENT OF THE FISCHBACH BUILDING ON CANAL STREET, DESCRIBED AS THE HEART OF SMOKEY ROW IN THE 1890S.

Lemont at 150 Years: Yesterday & Today

men working in CCC camps during the great depression. The rolling hills, deep ravines, and beautiful views in the Palos Preserves makes this one of the most extensive and finest resources for recreational activities and forest preservation.

Lemont is not the only town that owes its existence to canals, but Lemont’s total contributions to Chicagoland are exceptional. Lemont can brag, however, that is the only place where all four important waterways—the Des Plaines River, the I&M Canal, the Sanitary Canal, and the Cal-Sag— run.

Transportation

On a rainy night, May 2, 1865, at 11:10 p.m., Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train passed through the station. The train had to slow to avoid a huge crowd that stood in the mud holding torches, throwing flowers on the rails to pay respect to Lincoln.

This station was also where quarry workers staged a strike in 1885 for fair wages and work hours. The governor called in the militia, and the soldiers arrived to be confronted by a large angry mob. In the conflict that followed, three men were killed and numerous people were injured, including women. Labor organizer Albert Parsons, most remembered as conspiring in the Haymarket Riots a year later, came to Lemont to speak to the strikers.

In the early 1900s, an electric train—street car or trolley—ran down Main Street through Lemont from Joliet to Chicago. It extended down Archer Avenue where passengers would transfer at Cicero and Archer to the Chicago system. It ran every half hour in the summer, made the trip from Joliet to downtown Chicago, transfer included, in about an hour and a quarter for five cents.

In the early 1900s, public transportation was more convenient than today. Barges still ran on the I&M Canal and commercial transportation on the Sanitary Canal. Two railroad lines offered twenty trains per day.

Trains had come to Lemont as early as 1858 and created early competition to the I&M Canal, especially for passenger traffic. The Chicago and Alton Railroad and the Santa Fe Railroad at one time ran both freight and passenger commuter trains. Almost immediately after the opening of the railroads the population of Lemont tripled.

The historic Chicago and Alton train station opened in 1859. Built of Lemont stone, it is one of the oldest train stations in Illinois. It was from this station that enlisted men left for the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and World War I.

IN 1901, THE CHICAGO & JOLIET ELECTRIC RAN NORTH FROM JOLIET INTO LEMONT, ENTERING TOWN ON NEW AVENUE AND MERGING ONTO MAIN STREET BEFORE CONTINUING NORTHEAST.

As automobiles became the most popular form of passenger transportation, the need for public transportation gradually declined. Today passenger trains still run six trains per day through Lemont and freight trains run on the Santa Fe tracks. The Sanitary Canal and Cal Sag are still essential for shipping, but the I&M Canal is used only for recreational and educational purposes.

THE CAL-SAG IS IN THE FOREGROUND, DIAGONAL, CUTTING ACROSS AN I&M CANAL REMNANT. (COURTESY OF THE METROPOLITAN WATER RECLAMATION DISTRICT OF GREATER CHICAGO)

Businesses and People of Lemont

Changes in transportation in the early 1900s were quickly followed by changes in industry. Quarries ceased operation, filled with water, and became recreational resources. Automobiles, electricity, and telephones came to Lemont. Farming continued, but more and more farm land became residential as subdivisions were built.

Restaurants, grocers, banks, and other small businesses cropped up throughout the community. Schools, public and private, and churches of many denominations were established. Along the canal, areas surrounding downtown Lemont, and at the outskirts, industrial companies began to crop up. The canal was still a major asset for easy transportation of products. Industry began to flourish in the valley.

One of the first industries to open in Lemont was that of the Wold brothers, who started a bottling

company that opened in the 1870s and produced Wold Beverages well into the later 1900s. It is said that, since the company operated throughout Prohibition, there could have been a connection at one time to Ralph Capone, Al Capone’s brother, who was said to have run a bottling company in Lemont for “family” purposes.

One of Lemont’s oldest notable industries was Illinois Pure Aluminum. Established in 1892, the factory, under President George Walker, manufactured aluminum cookware and road signs. The company’s main product, called Walker Ware, was among the first aluminum cookware products to be widely sold. During World War I the company also manufactured canteens for use in the war. The factory closed in the 1970s after eighty years of operation, and the building was demolished in the 1980s.

A little-known business was the Lincoln Park Nursery. In 1907, Lemont land on the north bluff of the Des Plaines River just east of Lemont Road became a 107-acre nursery that provided topsoil and plants for the construction of Lincoln Park

in Chicago. Today, while hiking the trails of Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve, you can still find remnants of a structure with “LPS 1921” carved into the stone, thought to be an administration building used by the nursery. From an overlook of the Des Plaines Valley a broadening of the river can be seen, the “borrow pit” from which topsoil was removed and used to cover Lincoln Park.

Another important Lemont industry was oil refineries, ideally located on the Sanitary Canal. The history of oil refineries in Lemont goes back to 1922, when Texas Oil constructed the first refinery. Over the years, ownership has changed: in 1933 to Globe Refinery; in 1949 Seneca Petroleum; 1965 Pure Oil; 1967 Union Oil; and the current owners, Uno-Van, or Citgo.

15, 1943, a decision was made by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to move the project from Chicago for safety and security reasons. At that time, the original reactor that had produced the first controlled nuclear chain reaction (CP1) was relocated to Red Gate Woods and renamed CP2. Later the world’s first heavy water reaction, CP3, was built on the site.

The site was decommissioned in 1954 and a new permanent laboratory was built a short distance away in Lemont on the north bluff of the Des Plaines Valley. Argonne Laboratory, the first national laboratory in the United States, became the nation’s principal nuclear development center. Projects that resulted from research here were the first nuclear plant to produce electricity and the design of a nuclear power plant for the first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus. Today a vast amount of scientific research and engineering is done at Argonne National Laboratory.

The 1920s also brought golf to Lemont with the opening of Gleneagles Country Club in 1924, Cog Hill in 1927, and Big Run in 1930. The Forest Preserve District of Cook County also ran the Palos Golf Club just east of Lemont on 107th Street, which closed in 1943. The courses were a convenient ride from Chicago on public transportation and brought many visitors. The tradition continues today with the opening of Ruffled Feathers in 1992, the only Pete Dye-designed course in Illinois.

In the forests at the edge of Lemont, in a secret temporary location, scientists conducted essential research in the field of nuclear energy, which led to the first atomic bomb. The Manhattan Project had been moved in early 1943 from the University of Chicago to a secluded site leased from the Cook County Forest Preserves. On May

One cannot talk about the history of Lemont and not mention Lemont’s Hometown Hero, Rudy Kling. In the late 1920s and the entire 1930s America was in love with the sport of air racing, and no one more intensely than Rudy Kling. Born in 1908, the otherwise quiet, ordinary young man had a dream of owning his own airplane and flying. In 1933 he bought a damaged plane that had previously won many races, rebuilt it, and named it Suzy. In 1936, in his first race as a pilot, Rudy set a record for light planes of 228.07 mph.

JOHN ROEBUCK’S STATION ON ILLINOIS ST

RUDY AND THERESA KLING AFTER WINNING 3 TROPHIES AT THE NATIONAL AIR RACES

Rudy then designed and built Jupiter, the Pride of Lemont, the plane in which he won the Thompson Trophy in 1937, capturing the World Championship. Rudy died in an air crash while racing in Miami on December 3, 1937, at the age of 29.

The Village of Faith

Baptist, and Hindu have active churches in today’s Lemont. This is characterized in the architecture of the town, with many views, especially from the north side of the valley, dominated by the steeples that give the town its peaceful atmosphere.

In the 1920s, Lemont’s importance as a religious town, along with its abundance of open land, easy access to Chicago, and relative seclusion from urban strife, led an abundance of religious organizations to made their home here. These organizations were outgrowing their space in Chicago and elsewhere and looking for a new place to locate the headquarters of their communities. They found what they were looking for in Lemont.

Lemont has long been called “The Village of Faith.” Its earliest settlers came mainly from the eastern seaboard and Europe to purchase land, to farm, to start businesses, or to offer services. Next, with the need for laborers to dig the canals and quarries, many of the first immigrants came from Ireland. The ethnic makeup of Lemont at the time the Village of Lemont was incorporated on June 9, 1873, was: Irish 35%; German 25%; American born 20%; Scandinavian 10%; Other 10%.

People had come to Lemont for many reasons, but among those reasons was the ability to practice their religion of choice. Therefore, with both language and religious concerns, churches of many denominations were established to serve the needs of a growing population. This explains why, although a relatively small village of approximately 18,000 today, Lemont has among its denominations four Catholic churches, originally formed to serve Irish, German, and Polish populations.

In addition to a large Catholic population, many other religions, such as Lutheran, Methodist,

First to purchase large parcels of land along Main Street east of downtown Lemont were the Slovenian Franciscan Friars who bought a large farm in 1924 to establish a monastery, known today as St. Mary’s. Soon the adjacent property was bought by the School Sisters of St. Francis of Christ the King, who built their convent and the Mount Assisi Academy, a high school for girls. In the same year, 1925, the Franciscan Sisters of Chicago bought the Walker Mansion and grounds and built their convent and Lemont’s first continuing care retirement community, Franciscan Village.

Meanwhile, a short distance south along 127th Street, the Archdiocese of Chicago purchased land for a retirement home for priests in 1929. On the same site a succession of religious institutions occupied the property, starting with the Fournier Institute of Technology, a school to prepare young men for Christian leadership in business and industry. When Fournier closed in 1955, it was replaced by the St. Vincent De Paul Seminary and the De Andreis Seminary. Today the property contains subdivisions, but still has a religious occupant, the Lithuanian World Center, the largest organization of Lithuanian Catholics in the United States.

Lemont Today

In addition to the American, Irish, German, and Scandinavian people who established Lemont, by the 1850s the town had a growing

Lemont at 150 Years: Yesterday & Today

Polish population, and in the 1950s the Lithuanian population began to grow. Today’s demographics show that Lemont’s ethnic population consists of 30% Polish, 20% Irish, 19% German, 8% Lithuanian, the remainder smaller percentages. Today, one out of four families in Lemont speak their native tongue in their homes.

As Lemont grew, it never lost its dedication to preserving the past. The Village of Lemont has an active Historical Preservation Commission to ensure that treasures from our history are not lost. Lemont is on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979, and has buildings on the National Register of Historic Buildings that include Central School, The Old Stone Church, and the Fruhauf Building, all constructed of Lemont Limestone. As of 2016 Lemont’s Downtown Historic District is on the National register of historic places.

Lemont’s Art & Culture Commission is responsible for a number of outstanding murals throughout town that honor Lemont’s history. These include “Pride of Lemont” at 44 Stephen Street that features Rudy Kling and “There Comes a Time…” at 110 Main Street that depicts the quarry workers’ strike of 1885 across from the train station where the strike took place. “Lemont Quarry Workers” in Budnik Plaza, 316 Canal Street, is a memorial to the town’s quarry workers, and “Canal Boats” in the Post Office at 42 Stephen Street was commissioned as a WPA project in 1938.

Today’s Lemont strives to perfect a blend of the best of the old and the new. Never losing sight of our remarkable beginnings, Lemonters treasure their past while looking to provide the best possible facilities and lifestyle for residents and visitors alike. Whether one prefers a historicallypreserved Victorian or Sears Catalog home, a modest ranch, an apartment, a townhome, or a mini-mansion, it can be found in Lemont.

Lemont values its unique geographic and historic features, developing its natural resources for recreation. Examples are the Heritage Quarries and the close ties Lemont maintains with the I&M Canal National Heritage Corridor. Here, too, is The Forge: Lemont Quarries, an outdoor adventure park that offers ziplines, climbing

towers, running and hiking trails, mountain biking, entertainment, and numerous other activities in a natural setting along the I&M Canal and quarries.

On the eastern edge of Lemont are the extensive Cook County Forest Preserves, and on the north side of the Des Plaines Valley is Waterfall Glen, a DuPage County Forest Preserve. Both areas offer extensive trails for hiking and riding, educational programs, and other outdoor activities in addition to perpetuating their natural beauty. In addition, Big Run, Ruffled Feathers, and Cog Hill continue to offer excellent golf.

This article only touches on the unique and remarkable history of Lemont. Much more is available to those interested. The Lemont Area Historical Society at 306 Lemont Street preserves the area’s history in its extensive archives and photograph collections. The society offers a museum, programs, tours, and local research and genealogy assistance. A number of publications are available from the society, and The History & Anecdotes of Lemont, Illinois is also available for purchase on Amazon in paperback and e-book.

The author of this article also invites readers to view or subscribe to her local history blog at www.patcamallierebooks. com. Pat Camalliere’s novels, The Cora Tozzi Historical Mysteries, are available from Amazon, at local events, and at the Lemont Public Library.

THE FEDERAL ACT THAT CREATED THE I&M CANAL NATIONAL HERITAGE CORRIDOR IS PRESENTED TO THE TOWNSHIP, THE VILLAGE, AND THE LEMONT AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.