Glen Ellyn

Take a fascinating journey through the history of Glen Ellyn, Illinois with more than 200 vintage photographs and anecdotes from the locals who experienced it.

Glen Ellyn took its name from a Victorian real estate development whose massive promotional campaigns brought this unusually beautiful village to the attention of city dwellers eager to move their families away from the grimy, coal-fired environs of Chicago.

The story begins with hardy New Englanders who felled trees to build log cabins, broke the virgin prairie sod, and trapped wild game in the marshlands that would become greater Chicago, continuing through the radical changes that came with the railroad and the Civil War.

From Potawatomi Indiansand pioneers to an important Underground Railroadstation; from a luxurious lakeside health resort with a fabulous grand hotel to one of Chicago's premier suburban communities, Glen Ellyn presents the village's rich history with evocative photographs from the collection of the Glen Ellyn Historical Society.

Russ Ward, a freelance writer and fourth-generation Glen Ellyn native, grew up in the heart of the village. Ward's mother served as village historian, his grandfather as postmaster, and his great-grandfather as an agent for the Metropolitan West Side Railway that connected to Glen Ellyn via the old Aurora and Elgin line.