The Annexations of 1928 and 1930
The Annexations of 1928 and 1930
On May 8, 1928, a small area lying in the inside corner formed by Howard and Laramie was annexed. The northern boundary of this annexation was Howard, and the eastern boundary Laramie. The annexation ran 1124 feet south on Laramie, then cut due west 849 feet to "Carpenter Road," thence up Carpenter a very little way, then west again 495 feet to Long Avenue, thence north to Howard. This and the subsequent three annexations are shown on Map "D".
There are two prominent extensions to the west from the main body of Skokie. The lower, and much the larger of these was annexed on May 24, 1928. There are curious problems related to this acquisition, and we shall return to them later. But starting from Mulford and Long, the border of this acquisition ran west to Central (the north-south Central), then north to Oakton, then west to "Railroad Avenue" (modern day Lehigh), thence south to Howard along Railroad Avenue, then back east to Long. On this rather large acquisition stands today Niles West High School, Orchard Village, a number of light industrial plants, and along Lehigh some heavier industries, including Block Steel corporation. The ordinance making this acquisition uses the words "pursuant to a petition in writing" but does not state whose petition. We return to this matter later.
On July 31, 1928 the upper left arm was annexed. This area is bounded on the west by Harms Road and on the south by Old Orchard Road. On the north, the boundary extends Central (east-west Central) to the point which would be north-south Central (which is the east border of various township sections — 8, 17, 20, 29). From there it goes south 1/16 of a mile, then directly west to Harms Road. Though a relatively narrow strip, it houses today the Cook County District Two building.
The last major annexation took place on January 7, 1950, and this also is shown on Map "D". The border of this acquisition runs south from Howard and Central, along Central to a point just below Pratt, actually the center of Ionia Avenue. It then goes southeastward down Ionia to Waukesha, hence northerly up Waukesha one block to Dowagiac, then southeasterly along Dowagiac to Carpenter Road; hence up Carpenter to Pratt, and east on Pratt to Laramie. A significant part of this annexation was later to be disannexed to Chicago.
At this point in history, even though one small disannexation had taken place (to be discussed next) it is worth commenting that the Village of Niles Center was as large as it was ever to be — larger than present day Skokie, and remained so until another small disannexation in 1955. We turn now to the first disannexations.