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.

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.