• A shoe store advertised “high top” shoes. “They do away with wet feet, wet stockings and legs, colds and sick boys.”
• Two spies were ordered off Elgin’s practice field the day before the big football game with East Aurora.
• Elgin was host to the conventions of the Northern Illinois Dental Society and the Illinois Mayors’ Association. The dentists’ banquet opened with an oyster cocktail and ended with cigars.

• Mae West, “the gal with the hourglass figure that makes every second count,” was starring in “Belle of the Nineties” at the Rialto.
• The Elgin National Watch Co. installed spring water in its coolers and residents boiled water for drinking purposes until the city’s water supply was deemed safe from contamination.
• A fish fry at the Fox Hotel was 20 cents a plate and ice cream at the Prince Castle was 10 cents a pint.

• Construction began on St. Thomas More parish’s buildings.
• By a 5-2 margin, voters approved a bond issue of $2,987,000 to acquire land and build a second high school on the west side.
• The new west-side schools were named Kimball Junior High and Highland Elementary.

• The Regional Transportation Authority purchased Morgan’s Flowers, south of the city along Route 31, for $316.000. The site was slated for use as a bus maintenance garage.
• Concerned Citizens for Education, a group organized to promote a tax increase for Elgin School District U46, opened campaign headquarters in the Fountain Square Plaza Mall.

• A townhome project was under construction on the former site of the Starview outdoor theater. The Starview opened in 1948 and closed in 1986.
• The Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren observed its 100th anniversary.
• Elgin School District U46 enrollment passed 36,000.
• Burren Transfer Co. closed its doors.
• The city was considering an overnight street parking ban

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Here’s what was happening in Elgin during the month of September 100, 75, 50, 25 and 10 years ago.

• A car hit a horse-drawn express wagon. The horse had to be destroyed.
• The city acquired the equipment necessary to test impurities in the milk supply.
• The Baptist Ladies sponsored a lecture on “In Memoriam” by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
• Enrollment in the public schools continued to increase. The total at the start of the new school year: 3,760.
• The German Methodists had a day school with 55 pupils.
• Stores were open in the evenings on Fridays, Saturdays and Elgin National Watch Co. paydays.

• Real estate assessments, reflecting the downward spiral of housing prices, had dropped approximately 25 percent.
• Two fan dancers headed a two-hour floor show at the Purple Grackle.
• Water from an Elgin spring was priced at $1 for six gallon bottles delivered.
• During the Community Chest campaign, the Elgin National Watch Co. donated an amount equal to 25 percent of what was raised up to $40,000.

• Grand openings this month: Osco drug store on South Grove Avenue, Silver Court Apartments on Lawrence Avenue, and Kimball Junior High School.
• Elgin’s three national banks increased interest rates to 3 percent on all savings deposits.
• The ornate main entrance to the Elgin State Hospital was removed to make room for the Route 20 bypass.

• The 174th anniversary of Mexico’s independence from Spain was marked by a two-day observance. There was a festival in the mall, a parade and a dance at the Blue Moon.
• Business and community leaders organized a campaign to pass a proposed Elgin School District U46 tax increase.
• The city council voted to ban all leaf burning within the city limits beginning Jan. 1, 1985.

• Yo-Yo Ma, the world famous cellist, performed at Hemmens Cultural Center.
• Two armed masked men robbed Dino’s supermarket.
• A stretch of North Street, from North Grove Avenue to Dundee Avenue, was renamed Symphony Way in honor of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra.
• Elgin School District U46 received a $500,000 state grant for the purchase of computers.
• The city’s planning and development commission approved a proposed 126-unit senior complex on McLean Boulevard by a 4-to-3 vote.
• There were a number of complaints about abandoned shopping carts.
• The issue of overcrowded housing moved to forefront of the concerns voiced by neighborhood groups.

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What was making headlines in Elgin in the month of August 100, 75, 50, 25 and 10 years ago?

 1909

• Record crowds were attending the harness races at Wing Park.

• Several attendants at the state hospital resigned rather than work under a female supervisor.

• A blacksmith was proposing to fit buggies with rubber tires.

• The last of the cedar blocks that at one time paved Grove and Douglas avenues and Chicago Street in the downtown area were removed.

• Local banks were giving out the new Lincoln pennies.

• The price of milk rose to 12 cents a quart.

 1934

 A Ford Tri-Motor based at the Trout Park Airport was giving rides for 40 to 75 cents, depending on the time of flight. Police received complaints that the plane was flying too low over the city.

• Golfers could play as many rounds they wanted for only 40 cents for the whole day.

• A Pushmobile Derby was held around a four-block course at Lincoln, Spring, Slade and Douglas. Three races were held. Each team included the driver and as many pushers as he could enlist.

• The Tri-City Animal Hospital opened on Highway 58, three blocks east of Liberty Street.

• A bicycle fad was sweeping the city.

• Three Elgin sisters were married in a triple wedding ceremony.

 1959

• The city had three title-winning baseball teams. Elgin’s National Little League team captured the state championship. The Elgin Teener All-Stars won the regional title. The Elgin Athletic Club was Illinois semi-pro champ.

 1984

• Severe thunderstorms, 70 mph winds and more than 3 inches of rain toppled trees, flooded streets and knocked out electric service for thousands of residents.

• Annual percentage yields on one-year certificates of deposit at local financial institutions were better than 11 percent.

 1999

• In an unrelated incident, a midday gang-related shooting on Michigan Street injured two young men.

What was happening in Elgin during the month of July 100, 75, 50, 25 and 10 years ago?

• After passage of a favorable referendum, the board of education was making plans to issue bonds to expand the high school building.

• Police issued an order prohibiting the exhibition of hypnotized persons in store windows.

• The word “insane” was dropped from the name of the local state hospital.

• The Commercial Club announced the Western Thread Co. of Chicago would move to Elgin. The club gave the firm a $4,000 bonus, and Western Thread agreed to erect a building and employ at least 60 persons.

• The YWCA suggested to mothers that young girls not be allowed on the streets in the evenings during the National Guard encampment unless properly chaperoned.

• Harness racing meets were held on the speedway at Wing Park.

 Elgin’s population was estimated at 25,116 for the annual school census. Women outnumbered men by more than a thousand.

• A basket of peaches was selling for 35 cents at Scheele’s grocery.

• The city endured more than six consecutive days of 100-degree heat.

• Voters rejected Sunday sales of beer by a vote of 2,999 to 2,906

• A Hupmobile Sedan was selling for $888 delivered.

• The Purple Grackle advertised free dancing with no minimum or cover charge. Pabst Blue Ribbon draft beer was available at its 50-foot-long bar.

• Two women were arrested on adultery charges.

• Alan Ladd was starring in “Shane” at the Grove Theater.

• An eight-man horseshoe league was competing at the Wing Park pits.

• Work was started on the installation of traffic signals at North McLean and Royal boulevards.

In 1999 …

• After two years, the Riverside Water Treatment Plant expansion was completed. It doubled the daily treatment capacity to 32 million gallons.

• A yearlong schedule began at three elementary schools.

• A little-known community volunteer bequeathed $1.14 million to Provena Saint Joseph Hospital, Gail Borden Public Library, YWCA Elgin, churches and other organizations.

• Leath Furniture was taking steps to leave Elgin.

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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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He may be best known as a historian of Elgin. He has published several books on the history of Elgin and the surrounding area, in addition to hundreds of articles for the local Elgin Daily Courier-News. He currently serves as the secretary on the Board of Trustees of the Gail Borden Public Library District and writes a biweekly column on Elgin’s history.

Of all the Elgin buildings that once comprised the world’s largest watch-making complex — the huge factory, the boarding and rooming houses for employees, the gymnasium and the school that trained skilled repairmen — only the observatory remains.

Accuracy in time-keeping was a constant endeavor of the Elgin National Watch Co., and in 1910 an observatory was opened to time its watches by movements of the stars. A knoll at the northeast corner of Watch and Raymond streets was selected for the observatory because the site’s gravel composition helped insulate from vibrations transmitted through the earth. Underground cables connected the observatory with the timing department of the factory.

“Correct” time was measured by the revolution of the Earth on its axis using distant, fixed stars as reference points.

Looking into the eyepiece of a 3-inch telescope, set exactly north and south, the observer saw two horizontal and 11 vertical hairs. Actually, these were threads taken from the web of a spider set less than .007 of an inch apart.

A star appeared as a bright point of light between the horizontal hairs. Whenever it passed one of the vertical hairs, the observer pressed a button that recorded the reading on a chronograph.

On clear nights, 10 or more stars were observed, and the average of all the readings kept a master clock accurate to .01 of a second. A bedroom was provided to enable the astronomer to nap between observations.

Elgin watch movements were checked to see that they ran within a prescribed accuracy for 24-hour periods: seven-jewel, 1-minute allowance for fast or slow; 15-jewel, 30 seconds; 17-jewel, 15 seconds; 21-jewel, 5 seconds; and 23-jewel, 1 second.

Time determined at Elgin started the inaugural run of the New York Central’s Twentieth Century Limited in 1932 and opened and closed the gates of the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. Beginning in 1938, the company’s telephone operators answered calls by giving the correct time from the observatory. The practice ended when dial telephone service arrived in 1955.

Watch sales now are declining because many cell phone and computer users prefer to consult the cession fission atomic time system operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. History — and time — marches on.

The observatory, its equipment and grounds were deeded to Elgin School District U46 in 1960. A planetarium was constructed in 1963 for educational purposes, and thousands of students were introduced to the wonders of astronomy.

The eight-sided building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

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