The graves of Elk Grove's founders
can be seen in Elk Grove Cemetery, located within the Arlington
Heights Road interchange with I-90. A herd of elk is also kept in
the Busse Woods (Ned Brown) Forest Preserve at the intersection
of Arlington Heights Road and Higgins Road. Elk Grove Village is
a planned suburban community; Village leaders, in conjunction with
Centex Corporation (who purchased most of the nearby farmland) thoughtfully
planned the entire community during the 1950s and worked to see
the plan unfold. This planned community concept included locations
for major highways, commercial areas, the largest consolidated industrial
park in North America, and residential subdivisions complete with
parks, schools, churches, and shopping centers.
The first residential Centex subdivision was located
near what was then "downtown" Elk Grove, at the intersection
of State (now Arlington Heights Road) and Higgins Road (IL-72) behind
the Park 'n' Shop plaza and Elk Grove Bowl (now known as the Elk
Grove Woods Plaza). The Elk Grove Public Library's first location
was inside a home within this first subdivision. Among the first
tenants in the Park 'n' Shop plaza was Jarosch Bakery, which has
been family owned since its opening and continues to serve residents
to this day.
The village easily doubled in size during the 1960s.
By the end of the decade, most of the land between O'Hare International
Airport and I-290/IL-53 was developed. As the village expanded to
the south and west, new roads, schools, and parks were added to
the community. Rupley Elementary was the first school to be constructed
in Elk Grove Village and it was named after the president of Centex.
The Grove Mall was built on the southwest corner of Arlington Heights
and Biesterfield Roads to serve residents in that area. Initially,
plans for Grove Mall included banks, retail stores, a post office,
a theater, and other specialty stores; however, these plans were
never fully realized. Land for "phase II" and "phase
III" of Grove Mall were sold to Centex when Schaumburg announced
the groundbreaking of the 200+ acre site for Woodfield Mall. Still,
Grove Mall thrived for decades with Jewel Foods, Ace Hardware, Ben
Franklin's, the Elk Grove Lounge, a pet store, a barber shop, clothing
stores, and, later, Walgreens.
The 1960s also saw the opening of Elk Grove High
School, part of District 214. The Robert E. Haskell Memorial Stadium
is named after the first principal who ran the school until 1974
when he suddenly died of a heart attack. Since its opening, EGHS
has seen continuous increases in enrollment, expansions of its facilities,
and award-winning faculty. In 1996, EGHS received the Blue Ribbon
for Excellence in Education. EGHS is also home to award-winning
athletics and academic teams alike. In the 1970s, the village developed
land west of the expressway in Schaumburg Township along with industrial
development into Addison Township. New apartment communities were
also constructed in Elk Grove along Tonne Road and Ridge Avenue.
These developments have since been sectioned, and some converted
to condominium homes. The village saw continuous residential, commercial,
and industrial growth during the 1980s. However, Lively Junior High
School was no longer needed.
It was shut down and remodeled to become the new
Park District Recreation Center. In the 1990s, after dedicating
29 years of service to the community as the Executive Director of
the Elk Grove Park District, Jack A. Claes' last project before
retirement was the design and development of a 'state of the art'
community recreation center. As appreciation for Mr. Claes' award-winning
years of service, the Board of Commissioners of the Elk Grove Park
District dedicated the Pavilion to Claes upon its completion in
1995. Located at 1000 Wellington Avenue, the Jack A. Claes Pavilion
is located in the center of the Village. Inside the 110,000-square-foot
(10,000 m2) facility is an indoor playground, fitness center, jungle-themed
pool, banquet rooms, arts & craft center, climbing wall, racquetball
and basketball courts and more. The Jack A. Claes Pavilion is a
popular community center for children, and families.
The old Lively Junior High was then used as a storage
facility for a few years before being completely demolished in the
early 2000s. http://www.elkgroveparks.org/pavilion.asp?id=222 In
recent years, the village has worked to redevelop and boost its
image as an exceptional community. The "downtown" of Elk
Grove was relocated to Biesterfield and Arlington Heights during
the 1990s. The village created a governmental campus by developing
the Charles J. Zettek Municipal Complex, police station, Biesterfield
fire station, Elk Grove Public Library, and Park District Pavilion/administrative
office/and Pirates Cove theme park in the downtown area. This work
was completed at the beginning of the decade; the Elk Grove Village
Public Library, the subject of many floods at its second location
along the banks of Salt Creek near Morrison Boulevard and Brantwood,
relocated next door to the municipal center; and finally, the outdated
Grove Mall was condemned and redeveloped into the Elk Grove Town
Center. The Town Center--and the renovated/expanded Classic Cinemas
Elk Grove Theater (which originally opened in November of 1971 as
a single-screen Jerry Lewis Cinema) --were reconstructed with red
brick and connected the library, municipal complex, and shops with
brick-paved walkways, fountains, bronze statues, and, a few years
later, a clock tower. The Municipal Complex is also currently undergoing
a complete renovation. The Police Station was leveled and is being
reconstructed in the same location.
The new facility will integrate all municipal operations
under one roof except for Public Works. In the 2000s, Elk Grove
beautified the residential areas of the village. This effort included
the installation of "welcome" signs along major roads,
painting the light poles and traffic lights along Biesterfield black,
creating landscape beds and landscaped medians throughout the community,
installing decorative street lamp posts, installing ornamental,
framed road signs, and installing brick-paved crosswalks along high
pedestrian areas of the community. Recently, ABMC expanded to nearly
double its offices and parking capacity with a towering four-story
garage and six-story office center.
Elk Grove is also in the process of creating a
second "downtown" at Meacham and Biesterfield. A former
Super K-Mart center constructed in 1992 was divided to three new
stores including a Home Depot, and vacant land on Meacham Road between
the new Steak-n-Shake and Wal-Mart will soon be developed into a
shopping center. An older shopping center at Rohlwing and Devon
Avenue was completely remodeled in an upscale facade. The center
is now home to Charlie's Charhouse, Belvedere Banquets, Country
Inn & Suites, and several restaurants. In the early 1980s, the
owners of Elk Grove Theater sold part of its parking lot to Burger
King. In 2005, Burger King closed down, and the new theater owners,
Classic Cinemas, reacquired the land. The six-screen cinema has
since added two new stadium seating auditoriums with new party rooms.
In 2006, Elk Grove became one of the first towns in Illinois to
enact a public smoking ban.
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