City Centennial Year
On April 19, 1910, the Village of Park Ridge, population 2,009, voted by referendum to become a city by a vote of 220-178. The first City officials were elected on May 24, 1910. Voting took place in the baggage room at the Chicago and North Western depot, located just a few feet closer to Prospect Avenue than the current Uptown Metra Station. Albert Buchheit, local dentist, won a four-year term, defeating William Malone 272-246.
During the subsequent century, Park Ridge grew from a small village to a busy suburban destination at the crossroads of the Midwest. The City has stood for nurturing American values, public service, civic improvement and teaching its young people to become thoughtful participants. Park Ridge has established an impressive history, as a place to dream and a place to achieve.
The 100th anniversary of its status as City is a perfect time to salute Park Ridge’s heritage and take pride in its legacy of achievements.
The mission of the
Park Ridge Historical Society is to maintain a rich collection of Park Ridge artifacts that reflects this heritage and legacy, to elevate awaremess of our City's colorful heritage and to celebrate our accomplishments of the past and present.
The Kalo Foundation emphasizes the City’s cultural heritage as the hometown of many creative people. "It Starts with the Arts" is a series of programs being hosted by the Kalo Foundation in conjunction with the Centennial Year to highlight and feature many aspects of the arts here. Details of this programming are given on the
Kalo website.
The Garden Club is encouraging all residents to plant the City’s flower---the red geranium---during the Centennial Year. As part of the an
nual Beautification Awards program sponsored by the City of Park Ridge and the Garden Club (deadline July 16), extra points will be given to those nominees who use the red geranium in their gardens this year.
"Albert Buchheit Day," named in honor of the City’s first mayor featured special tours around Hodges Park on Monday, May 24, 2010. The "
Taste of Park Ridge" in July also took on a centennial theme.
Park Ridge’s Centennial year as a City celebration continues from May 24, 2010 through May 24, 2011. Various special events are being planned throughout the Centennial Year and will be highlighted and announced in the city newsletter,
the Spokesman, and noted on
Spokesman Around Town Events Calendar.
Many artists located in the area of Clinton and Grant Place where Clara Barck Wells established the
Kalo Arts Crafts Community House. Other notable artists who called Park Ridge home were Albert Kreibiel and his wife Dulah Evans Krehbiel, Alfonso Iannelli, Grant Woods, Eugene Romeo, and Kenneth Brown Ransley.
The Park Ridge Improvement Association (now the Twentieth Century Club) was founded almost 100 years ago by the women of Park Ridge to encourage cultural and civic betterment. Many of the group’s leaders were professional artists themselves or married to artists and craftsmen in the Park Ridge Artists’ Colony.
Among the City of Park Ridge’s famous citizens are Hillary Rodham Clinton, Federick Goudy (inventor of 120 typefaces), Grant Wood, Eugene Kupjack (miniaturist; works displayed in the Art Institute of Chicago), Alfonso Iannelli (sculptor; designed parts of the Pickwick Theater), Harrison Ford, Jim Pankow (actors), Karen Black and Carrie Snodgrass (actresses), and Steve Goodman (folk singer and song writer).
City tours administered by the
Chamber of Commerce will highlight the accomplishments of these Park Ridge natives. There is a charge for the tours which provide an entertaining walk or ride through our history.
Concerts during the Centennial year will feature works by John Alden Carpenter, world renowned Park Ridge composer. The Park Ridge Civic Orchestra which performs at the historic Pickwick Theater in Uptown Park Ridge and the
Park Ridge Fine Arts Society, which presents a series of summer concerts City Hall adjacent to Hodges Park on Friday evenings throughout the summer months, both plan to feature Carpenter works.