Looking back on June in Elgin June 27th, 2009
E.C. “Mike” Alft :
Here’s what was making headlines in Elgin during the month of June 100, 75, 50, 25 and 10 years ago:
A new motion picture theater, the Lyric, opened on DuPage Street. The Daily News said it “ranks in beauty and finish with the best of Chicago’s five-cent playhouses.”
The 78 graduates of Elgin High School included a boy who was 15 years, 3 months old.
Work began on paving Dundee Avenue with brick. The street will have concrete curbs and gutters. The project will use 1.5 million bricks.
Voters approved a bond issue of $115,000 to complete the half-built Elgin High School.
The Star Theater installed fans to keep its patrons cool.
The temperature reached 107 degrees on the first of the month.
Twenty-one Elgin residents received their citizenship papers. They were natives of Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Russia, Poland and Canada.
Golfers could buy a season ticket at Wing Park for $1.
Elgin High School graduated 276 seniors. The Academy gave diplomas to 11.
The former Peyton Clinic at the northwest corner of Division and Spring streets and the home of Dr. A.L. Clark north of the building were demolished. The structures would be replaced by a bi-level parking lot for Ackemann’s department store.
James M. Roche, an alumnus of Elgin High School’s class of 1923, was the school’s commencement speaker. He is a vice president of General Motors.
Doris Day was featured in “It Happened to Jane” at the Star View Outdoor Theater.
The Kane County Board of Supervisors was considering the purchase of a landfill at the south end of South Elgin and east of Route 25. All the refuse dumps, including Elgin’s, were filling up.
The Board of Education voted to begin condemnation hearings on a 43-acre tract at the southeast corner of McLean Boulevard and Larkin Avenue. It was slated to be the location of a new high school.
A local chapter of Literacy Volunteers of America (now the Literacy Connection) began training volunteer tutors. The Gail Borden Public Library is the official sponsor and is providing meeting room space.
Elgin was a recipient of the Hometown Award for its creation of the Elgin Historic District.
An Elgin man was murdered in front of his wife in their home. Two suspects were charged in the shooting.
The Kane County Forest Preserve Commission was planning a bicycle path along the east side of the river to from Elgin south to the Tri-Cities.
The Board of Education continued to ban the novel “Forever” from middle-school libraries.
Figures compiled by the Chamber of Commerce revealed that 1,488 people move into Elgin each year and 1,258 move out, leaving the less affluent behind.
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