The First Annexation: January 28, 1924
The First Annexation: January 28, 1924
For over thirty years the original boundaries of Niles Center remained unchanged. In 1922 a referendum was held on annexing basically the land shown in Map "B", but the legality of this annexation was challenged. Consequently, the "special election" of April 18, 1922 was held again on December 28, 1925, and passed by a vote of 141 to 15. The Village Board then on January 18, 1924, made official the annexation of the new property shown in Map "B" by endorsing the results of the election.
The land thus annexed, and shown in Map "B", was a large area contiguous to the original village on the east. Its boundaries were present day Howard Avenue to the south, and the east line of the township (Township 4l) to the east. Note that this east line is not McCormick Boulevard, as is frequently supposed, nor the Metropolitan District Sanitary Canal east of McCormick either, but is in reality the eastern boundary of the township, a line approximately 100 yards east of the canal itself. The western boundary of the annexation was Skokie Blvd. running up to the intersection with "Iserman Road" (Niles Center Road), where that road became the boundary up to the intersection with Gross Point Road, where that became the boundary up to Central (the east-west- Central at the north of the present day village). From that point, the boundary ran south along Crawford, then straight east on Golf until that line intersected with the east boundary of the township.
Theodore Iserman (whose name Niles Center Road north of Main Street bore in those days) was one of the signers of the petition for this annexation. The petition itself was done under the aegis of a state law of July 1, 1872, providing ways for legal annexation of unincorporated territory. In general, the annexations we shall observe are of two kinds; the sort just described, and those, (as well as disannexations) which deal with the land of a neighboring incorporated municipality, which require approval of the governing bodies of both municipalities. All annexations and disannexations are initiated by a "petition" of a majority of the "landholders" and "voters" in the area in question.