Early settlers built history along Milwaukee Avenue

Jessica Cantarelli/Triblocal.com staff reporter

If it wasn’t for early Northbrook (then called Northfield) settler Silas Sherman, Milwaukee Avenue may not run through the Glenview and Northbrook area at all. According to “History of Early Chicago” by Albert Hager, Sherman was the one who originally petitioned the legislature to have the road established and surveyed.

As a result, about four miles of Milwaukee Avenue currently runs along the outer edge of both Glenview and Northbrook and has since the mid-19th Century thanks to Sherman’s efforts. And while the road’s scenery in these towns might be a far cry from the industrial views in Chicago, its presence has made a rich contribution to the history of Glenview and Northbrook.

Swampy beginnings

At first, the land around Milwaukee Avenue was marshy and swampy, said Beverly Dawson of the Glenview Historical Center, and author of “Glenview (Images of America).” Native Americans, typically in the Pottawatomie tribes, established trails on the higher ground near the swamp, naming it the Milwaukee Trace.

According to Dawson’s book, stagecoaches traveling to and from Chicago or Milwaukee stopped in Glenview for refreshments or some rest, typically at the M.C. Sherwin Farm (and later Stagecoach Tavern). The tavern, built in 1840, had a small hotel attached for passers through to stop overnight.

The road started out as a 16-foot wide path, which was paved with 2-by-4 girders laid lengthwise to support the white oak planks from tilting or turning under the weight of the wheels of the wagons on the road. Those traveling along the Chicago to Wheeling portion of the route in the mid-to-late 1800s had to pay a $1.30 toll—almost as much of an acre of land in those days.

“It wasn’t terribly successful,” Dawson said. “The wood planks deteriorated, this whole area was swampy, and the planks would float away during the floods.”

The land along the swampy trace, plank road or avenue at any point from the 1830s on was generally open farmland except for a few notable establishments along the route.

Notable residents

One notable building on Milwaukee near Lake Avenue rested on 123 acres of prairie grove land and is known today as the historic Grove. The Grove was home to physician and naturalist Dr. John Kennicott, who moved his family from New Orleans to West Northfield (now Glenview).

The house was originally a log cabin, and then the family built a gothic revival house in 1845. The Kennicotts were a family of naturalists and turned the Grove into a nursery, where rare flowers, fruit trees, shrubs and other types of vegetation grew.

It was also the location of the town’s first post office in 1846. John Kennicott served as its first postmaster. He was also instrumental in helping build Grove School in 1854, which cost $400 to construct and originally accommodated 36 children.

Kennicott’s son, Robert, was also a well-known American naturalist, who Dawson describes as “way ahead of his time.” He worked with the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., and helped found the Northwestern University natural history museum as well as the Chicago Academy of Sciences.

Robert Kennicott died at age 30 on an expedition to Alaska. Dawson said his work there contributed to the decision that led to the United States’ purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867.

“The Kennicott family were very intelligent people, with ties in both Glenview and Northbrook,” Dawson said. “They were held in tremendously high esteem by Native Americans. The First Nations tribe in Canada were so fond of [Robert Kennicott] that they brought his body back here when he died so he could be buried in the family plot.”

Decades later in 1941, Larry Nelson, another well-known Milwaukee Avenue resident, moved to Glenview. Nelson served as commissioner of the Kennicott House-Grove School Restoration Project, and even established his own Glenview landmark on Milwaukee upon moving to the area. Nelson Printing was on the east side of Milwaukee Avenue, just north of Central Road.

The family business published the Glenview Post and Northbrook Star, and was one of the main local printers, according to longtime resident and member of the Glenview Historical Society Mary Long.

“They did a lot of business, they were the main printers in town,” Long said. “But, like a lot of printing businesses, when computers came in, they lost a lot.”

Long, who handled the real estate sale of the property when Nelson died said the building was resold to a church and sat vacant for many years before being demolished and constructed a strip mall.

Dawson said Nelson was a beloved resident and an active member of the community. He was a Paul Harris fellow in Rotary International and former Rotary president in town as well as a member of the American Legion and the Northfield Township Republicans.

Cemeteries, restaurants

Moving North from Glenview, a small portion of the road runs on the outer edge of Northbrook. According to Northbrook resident and historical society member Judy Hughes, Milwaukee Avenue in Northbrook was open farmland for many years, riding alongside the DesPlaines River, which is how many settlers transported lumber to build the area’s first homes.

Also along Route 21 in unincorporated Northbrook lies the Northfield Oakwood Cemetery, where many of Northbrook’s early English and Scottish settlers are buried, including a soldier from the Civil War and one from Fort Dearborn, as well as family plots from the 1800s.

Decades later, Milwaukee Avenue in Northbrook was the location of the Villa Venice restaurant, a “playground for the rich” according to “Northbrook: Images of America.”

The cocktail garden offered patrons gondola rides and live entertainment. The Rat Pack performed there in 1962 and it burned down in 1967 and was replaced by Allgauer’s on the Riverfront Restaurant, which still serves the community today.


Wheeling Historical Society and Museum