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Jul 30, 2023

Looking Back for Aug. 30, 2023

1923 – 100 Years Ago Fisk Avenue, formerly North Street, will have its formal “grand opening” this evening, when the DeKalb Military Band, assisted by the ladies of the neighborhood who will serve ice

1923 – 100 Years Ago

Fisk Avenue, formerly North Street, will have its formal “grand opening” this evening, when the DeKalb Military Band, assisted by the ladies of the neighborhood who will serve ice cream and cake, will give a program, commencing at eight o’clock. The proceeds from the entertainment will go to the band.

Workmen are busy on the roof of the new Sawyer building in DeKalb putting the last touches to it and giving attention to other parts of the building before it is finally completed. The new garage will make a vast difference to the East section of the city when it is finally opened and put into use by the Sawyer Brothers. With the Jackman building, the Paulson garage, Sawyer’s oil station, the Seventh Street garage, Quanstrom’s building and several other places in that part of the city it begins to appear that the East end is picking up considerably along commercial and industrial lines.

Residents in the northwest part of DeKalb report that on Wednesday and Saturday nights especially and other nights also, a party of young people make it a practice to park their machines in front of their house and remain for some time making noise and disturbing the peace generally. This has been happening quite regularly on North First Street the last few weeks. People who live in those houses are in many ways put out and state that a repetition will mean arrest. Young Lochinvars should find a more appropriate place to do their courting than on the street and in front of homes. From now a watch will be kept and the young people may find the court room an ideal place to spoon.

Gossip in road-building circles over in Kane County is that Kane is coming soon to DeKalb, with a proposition for a stretch of concrete pavement to connect the strip that is now in process of construction from Big Rock to Aurora with the proposed construction of Route 23, or even a mile further into Waterman. This would give a direct concrete connection between DeKalb and Aurora and although the Kane county proposal will be intended to attract DeKalb county business to Aurora will furnish DeKalb an opportunity to get down into the Hinckley territory and draw business this ways, as well as giving Hinckley merchants and those from Waterman an opportunity to tap good territories.

1948 – 75 Years Ago

During the heat wave of the past few days the swimming pool at Hopkins Park was a most popular spot and yesterday the largest crowd of the year used the pool facilities. Charles Dayton, pool manager, stated that there were 1,147 in the pool yesterday with the peak crowd at 3:30 o’clock in the afternoon when thermometers hovered around the 100-degree mark. The pool remained open until 9:30 o’clock last evening when the rain and a cool breeze broke the heat wave, at least for a time.

Work preparatory to the eventual blacktopping of unpaved streets in DeKalb has been started by the Stahl Construction Company of Somonauk, which was awarded a contract for this work by the city several weeks ago. Grading has been started on some of the streets and gravel base is being laid. This base will be allowed to pack down during the winter months and the blacktopping will be done in the spring. Most, if not all, of the preliminary work should be completed within a few weeks.

County Clerk Earle W. Joiner has received and already placed in operation part of the expensive Addressograph machine which the Board of Supervisors ordered for him last June. The new gadget is called a graphotype and it is the machine which cuts or stamps out the metal stencils which then are fed through the addressograph in order to compile a list. The graphotype looks like a small model linotype machine and has a typewriter keyboard. When the keys are punched, the corresponding letter is punched out on a tiny strip of metal which is in turn attached to a metal blank of the proper size to feed through the stamping machine.

On Thursday afternoon in the business district of Sycamore between Maple and Somonauk Streets, the sidewalks sure looked like a mess with papers, straw and all other kinds of rubbish blowing about the place. The impression would not be too good for those passing through the town.

Yielding to the trend, America’s Girl Scouts will don smart new uniforms in the fall. Newly approved designs are the work of fashion designer Mainbocher. They are of green cotton covert with buttons down the front. Caps are also new.

Mrs. Iva Torgul D’Aquino, the American born “Tokyo Rose” of Japan’s wartime radio broadcasts, was arrested for treason today.

1973 – 50 Years Ago

The White House has raised the possibility that President Nixon might ignore, rather than appeal, a federal court order to make the Watergate tapes available to the court. Presidential aides said Wednesday that Nixon “will not comply with the order” by U. S. Judge John J. Sirica to make the tape recordings available to him for a decision on their use by a grand jury. Sirica’s ruling was the first major step in an historic test of presidential powers and represented a sharp defeat for Nixon. White House lawyers argued the President is beyond the reach of the courts.

The crew of America’s first manned Skylab mission will give a space age lift-off to NIU’s 75th anniversary celebration, it was announced today. Making their first visit as a team to Illinois, the three Skylab 1 astronauts will be the featured speakers at the opening ceremonies of Northern’ s anniversary year Sept. 12.

An Ordinance to lower the liquor drinking age from 21 to 19 in DeKalb received its first reading before the City Council Monday night, but several aldermen cast doubts on the final disposition of the bill. To become city law, the bill must pass again at a second council meeting.

1998 - 25 Years Ago

Due to a decline of service utilization and an inability to recruit and maintain an adequate number of obstetric nurses, Rochelle Community Hospital will close its obstetrics department as of Oct. 1. The decision comes after extensive scrutiny of staffing requirements that have become increasingly difficult to fulfill in recent years.

Hundreds of people laid bouquets at Kensington Palace, Princess Diana’s former home, on Saturday, two days before the first anniversary of the princess’s death.

This weekend the streets of downtown DeKalb should be packed with people eating and drinking from a hundred different vendors and listening to live music from a myriad of bands. And there will be corn, lots and lots of corn.

City officials hope a fountain and a gazebo will improve the appearance of downtown DeKalb, but they are leery of the project’s price tag of $166,000. The gazebo, a replica of the band shelter that was in DeKalb’s Huntley Park 150 years ago, has already been built and placed in DeKalb Square Park, at the intersection of Lincoln Highway and Route 23.

A new law passed by the DeKalb City Council requires landlords to inform potential tenants if the building they’ll be renting is in the floodplain.

– Compiled by Sue Breese