Riverside, the leafy, Frederick Law Olmsted designed suburb, celebrated by urban planners and landscape architects alike, is just as magical as its reputation implies.  I know - I lived there for twenty-three years as a child and young adult.  Far less magical, was the financial chicanery involved in its creation. Early Riverside and the Gage Equestrian Farm Following the 1864 opening of the CB&Q railroad, Chicago civic leader and socialite David Gage established a 1,600-acre

On any summer afternoon, a park along Mill Street south of Diehl Road on Naperville’s north side, the Nike Sports Core hosts a variety of athletic contests.  Spaces are allocated for baseball, soccer, beach volleyball, basketball, tennis, and more.   Why is it named the Nike Sports Core?  Did Nike, Incorporated, the athletic footwear and apparel marketer, sponsor its establishment?  No.  The sports core is in fact named for missiles, not shoes.   Advances in aviation technolo

Before there were automobiles, people needed a way to travel beyond walking distance in the growing city of Chicago, and in fact in cities and towns everywhere.  Public transportation systems filled and continue to fill that need. Chicago’s first public transportation was furnished by horse drawn omnibuses, beginning in the 1840s.  In 1859, an adaptation of the omnibuses, namely horse-drawn streetcars, began operating on the streets of Chicago.  As the city expanded, so did t

Hinsdale was there long before it was Hinsdale.  The Hinsdale that we know by that name was founded in 1866, shortly after the CB&Q...