Towns Along the Q
American History as Experienced in 14 Chicago Suburbs
What is the Q and what are the towns?
The Q was the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, later Burlington Northern and then BNSF Railway. Today suburbanites know it as the Metra BNSF line between Chicago and Aurora.
Metra has stations in 14 individual municipalities along the 40 mile route. Some of them were frontier settlements. Others got their start as speculative real estate developments clustered around the newly establish Q train stations. Increased automobile use after 1900 influenced suburbs that then stretched out along arterial streets. Opening of the East-West Tollway (and other fast highways) spawned development of Oak Brook and the office complexes around the highway interchanges. Electronic communication such as email, Zoom, and internet allowed substitution of communication for travel, further influencing the nature of the landscape.
Who am I?
I explore and examine the world around me. In doing so I continually ask the question "why do things look the way they do?, and "how did things get to be the way they are?". I examine, photograph, document and share what I find. That is what Towns Along the Q, the book and the blog, are all about.
Towns Along the Q
The Book
The Towns Along the Q story uses over 60 maps and images in describing the evolution of communities in Chicago - Aurora corridor, from geologic formations through the Covid-19 pandemic. Colorful and interesting facts and anecdotes explain how each community came to have the characteristics that it does.
The book divides the history into four epochs:
Frontier - before the coming of the railroad
Depot Suburbs - 1864-1900
Motordom - 1900-1958
Fast Lanes and Office Parks - 1958 - 2000
Into the New Millenium 2000-present
Towns Along the Q is now available at the Book Loft in Oak Park, Illinois (thebookloftoakpark.com), as well as on Amazon, bn.com, and bookshop.org. Soon to be available in other regional bookstores in the towns along the Q.
Historical Resources Along the Q
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My other publications and presentations
In the course of studying transportation history and pursuing my Masters of Urban Planning and Policy degree I have created other publications and presentations
