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Today is July 23rd, 2024. This is Lisa Mueller at Poplar Creek Public Library with Anita Komorski. Um and I'll just have you say your name, um so people know who's talking. Uh well, my name is Anita Komorski. Why did you decide to um move your business

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to Hanover Park? We relocated my business, my husband and I in 1995 to um Devon Avenue in Hanover Park. It was on Hassell Road in Hoffman Estates at the time. How long have you run the A & A Music & Art Academy? And can you

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give us a history of your business? We opened, I opened the business in 1982 on Salem Drive and also Hoffman Estates. Had it ever since as this is the actually the third location that um we bought the building. And um so um we've been giving private

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music lessons and uh we also do art instruction at the new location, which is now 1975 Devon Avenue. Are there any other services um you offer at the academy that you'd like to discuss? Our primary focus is on private instruction. There's 14 degree professional faculty members

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there. We teach basically all instruments including voice, violin. Uh, well, all strings. I have brass woodwinds, but mostly we, we work with piano and guitar because those are the most popular and they're not taught in schools. We give time and space to four park districts to

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send students to us four times a year. And, uh, we've done that with the Hanover Park Park District since 1982. They were one of the first ones that I talked to. But we also do Bartlett. We do Carol Stream and we do Hoffman Estates Park Districts,

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which was another one that was one of the original park districts. So spring summer, fall winter, we offer piano guitar, drums to the park districts in their brochures. We do not charge the park districts for our service of using our facility. That's our been our community

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donation for 42 years. Right now, the group classes are, we call them mini groups. There's two kids per class and it runs for eight weeks no matter what instrument you've chosen, but they are reduced rates to see how your child will do. And then if

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you want to continue on, then they can sign up for private lessons after that. So the art classes are um also small groups up to about eight and that is an ongoing art program. It's based on teaching you the principles of drawing and painting. We work

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through charcoal, graphite, pencil, colored pencil. Oil pastels and water color and we do do some acrylic. So we teach the kids and adults. I've got several adults too. So it's all ages how to draw on paper and make it look like something instead of stick people.

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So it's a lot of fun. Um, everyone can learn perspective and how to do these different kind of rules of the role of drawing when you're kind of taught one on one. So the art class is always kind of an interesting thing to come and visit

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when you see everybody working on different projects and different mediums. Because as they start out, they advance at their own pace and it's an ongoing program. So you can join at any time, you start at the beginning and you can stay and keep going as long

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as you're enjoying it. And that's what we do. And how did you get into this business? What's your interest or? Well, I played organ for a long time. My instructor at the time had asked me when he first started giving me lessons, what I wanted to

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do. And I said I would, was interested in teaching music to, to kids, piano and organ was very popular back in the seventies and eighties. So that's what I was had been studying. But um you know, he taught me piano as well and I had an

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opportunity to go to work at the Wurlitzer Woodfield store and give group lessons there. So I started teaching there for a part time job. And then when they closed the studio and got out of the mall, we opened another uh place in S- on Salem Plaza

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to continue the teaching part because there wasn't a store that had room for more teachers. So that's how I got started in the business. And it's just grown over time. We have about 325 students a week that come there. And I'm hoping to increase in our

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new facility now. Um, I just renovated the old farmhouse building that we owned. So I'm hoping to increase that to include stay at home moms, homeschooled kids and perhaps, uh, do more with seniors and the art classes. Our art instructor is also interested in expanding the

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times of offering the classes. So hoping that we get more daytime activity. Um, we are now, it's mostly after school evenings and on Saturdays. Have you seen any trends over the 42 years and who's coming in or what instrument they want to be- Very much so,

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um, the immigrant situation in our country has become a great source of more students. You know, over the years, we have a very diverse group of kids learning to play. And at any given time when you come in, you can hear virtually any language that you

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can name in our facility, but we're always dealing with music and music is a fundamental language. And so, um, it's always fun and it's, you know, we enjoy the interaction of the community. So um anybody's welcome and made to feel right at home i- in

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our facility. You are extremely knowledgeable about the history of Ontarioville, which is an area of Hanover Park that was annexed into the village in 1982. How did you become interested in this topic? My husband came home one day in 1994 and said he had found

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something. He wanted me to take a look at, let's go to lunch. So we went to lunch and he showed me the, the Benner Cash and Carry building, which was had a big sign on the front that said non-occupiable, um, didn't look too good outside

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or in, but the Benners had lived up above their grocery store. And so he says, you know, let's buy this building and move the school here and we can live up above it. And so we talked to at that time, it was owned by Joe

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who owns the Green Valley Golf uh driving range right on Lake Street. And so we contacted him and we bought it from him. We went through some changes through the village to be able to actually make that an apartment upstairs. It was grandfathered from being originally

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an apartment. So we got permission to do that and we renovated the building and we moved in, in December of 95 and opened the school and So after that, when we met some of the neighbors, there were other people living there close to us. The uh

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one of the old, there was an older gentleman on the other side of the, um at the time it was a state farm office and he lived on the other side of the uh the farmhouse was a state farm uh office. At the time we bought

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our building. But anyway, this II, I want to say his name was Lester and I can't, I haven't been able to locate my documents other than what I remember and, but he would declare himself the mayor of Ontarioville and come and visit us every day

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and tell us all about stuff. And so that was kind of an interesting scene. Um He passed away and his daughter sold that building to Kevin who owns it. Now he renovated that and is um using that building for his business. Meanwhile, the state farm agents

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decided they wanted to retire. So they put that building up for sale. We needed a bigger parking lot for the school. There wasn't enough space for cars. So we proceeded to purchase that building as well. So we now have two buildings. We renovated that somewhat and

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rented it out for a long time. But renting to office people was a problem because they're just, it's either too small a space or too big a space or, and then you'd have to fix it up after they'd leave. And it was, we really weren't making

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any money over there. But we, you know, we had converted the lawn in the back to a gravel parking lot. And, um, so our school was growing. So, uh, my husband had the idea of making it into an art gallery. So we named it for a

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while. We, we called it Ontarioville Arts Center, kept the town name and had a gallery and it was primarily run by the artists that were displaying there. And we had art lessons upstairs. And over time we put the drums in over there because we didn't

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have room for them in the main building and they're noisy. And um when um I mean, it's been a long time of having both, but um you know, it was difficult to get the artists to keep that running like it should and have steady hours. So

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we opted to just abandon that concept and turn it into the music school in 2021. The summer of that year, my husband passed away and uh now I'm running the school that has four music rooms and one building and six in the other and uh maintaining

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two buildings and got to be a little bit on the heavy duty side. So I decided I should probably make some changes and try to consolidate and make this a little more doable for one person to handle. So, um I did a total renovation on the

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art building and trying to find over the course of all these, these years of looking at things. I went down to the Wheaton Courthouse and I looked in, got permission to look in the microfilm room downstairs to figure out how old and some history about the

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buildings, Bob Ries, which they've got a little plaque in the in the park for him. He owned five properties around me and he was very instrumental. He's always te- telling me stories. He gave me some of these booklets that you already have uh describing things that

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happened in our little area there. And it's the, it's much more historic than most people realize. They just don't, they drive through there, they just don't even know kind of some of the stuff and what Ontarioville was all about. So, you know, it, it was um

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just interesting. I, I like history. So I, I researched the two buildings. The, the Benner Cash and Carry was built nearest I could find was 1926. And Mr Benner had married the daughter of the farmer that owned the property that we uh we owned the, the

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art buildings in. And so he has a big long German name that I wouldn't know how to even pronounce. But you- Fred Feuerhaken, I don't know. But anyway, he had a daughter and she, they had made her an apartment upstairs and then she married Mr Benner and

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they built this grocery store and moved in. And so they lived above the grocery store. He sold it in 1975. Um And it was kind of interesting that my husband's daughter used to live in the apartments that were just uh east of us, those uh big

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apartment buildings. And so they used to walk over there to get groceries. So she remembers them, uh which was kind of a fun thing to find out. Um But they ended up moving to Wisconsin. So, you know, um but meanwhile, Mr Ries told me a lot

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of different things um about the area how um years ago in the 1800s, the road that is now called Ontarioville Road was Lake Street at the time. And the- I would assume it's the state. But they came through, they wanted to pave and widen the

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road because Lake Street went all the way out, clear half across way across the country. So they wanted to make that more of a thoroughfare. So the village of Ontarioville voted against them doing that. So the road got turned and it is where it is

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today because of their vote, the townspeople vote nearest I I recall. He told me there were about 28 houses in that little area and there were most of them farmland and they also had dairy. So they had a co op dairy and they would utilize the

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train to take the milk into, into the city. He told me, the, uh, he wouldn't have been the first one, but one of the later owners was Mr Wanzer. And as a little girl, we used to get Wanzer milk delivered to my house where I grew

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up in Woodstock. And, uh, the truck would come every week with milk for us. So it was a name that also intrigued me because I grew up drinking Wanzer milk for, for quite a while. So you kind of put some of these things together and realize

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how close we are in some of these facets of our life and don't even realize it. So when I looked up the art building to see how old it was, it was difficult to find, I went back as far as 1874 and found it was a

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very small tax bill, which would indicate to me that that was probably just the land. But in 76 1876 I discovered that the tax bill went up. So I'm assuming that be somewhere around that time, the house was built the house. When you uh after just

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renovating it, there's all kinds of things I know about that house that are, it was, it's old. The foundation is over 18 inches thick and it's made out of field stone from when they would plow and they'd have these big rocks and they get collected enough

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rocks that they dug the hole and then they made the basement. So there's when you look at the basement. It's kind of on an ugly side, but it's, it was built as more of a storm cellar. Not like the basements of today. The joists that hold,

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hold the, you know, you got your walls and whatever, but these floor joists were cut from, had to be, uh, you know, trees at the time, there's still places on those boards, you can see the bark of the tree. So, you know, I mean, they just

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would cut the tree and here's one that's long enough and, and they're, they're two, they're two by 10 inches wide. So these are good size trees, but to see the bark on them was really kind of a surprise. When we looked in there, we did have

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to replace some floor joist in the house because over the course of the time they apparently had a fire, my guess is they had an old boiler type thing. There is a coal bin in the basement of that house. So, I mean, you know, that they

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were using that and there had to be some type of fire which they caught in time because it really only affected that downstairs area. And they did try the, I would assume probably when the state farm people bought it, it had to be renovated and they

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did some, they didn't pull the joists out and replace them. They just bolstered them up with some extra posts in the basement. And uh you can't actually do anything to replace those unless you do it from above. So when we, you, you can't do it from

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the basement, you have to do, tear up the floor and then do it from above. So my architect suggested that we do that. So we replaced four floor joists in the basement from above. And so my contractor had to chip out the foundation, pull the old

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burnt floor joists out, put the new ones in, they're two by 20 but there's no bark on ours and, and then fill it back in with. He used some of the rocks that he took out, put them back in there and, and with concrete surrounding them

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again so that they are fixed in the foundation like they should be. So we did that on the first floor and then over the course of the years of the family living there, uh they made an apartment upstairs and apparently they only had my guess is

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they cause I lived in an old house when I was growing up too. They had one furnace for the house. So they cut a hole into the second floor to put a flu or, or a, a duct up there, big square one to heat the upper

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floor for her, the daughter. But they also kind of wrecked the choice for the second floor when they did that. So we had to fix those too. But those were, you can fix them from underneath, they're not in the concrete. So the project of renovating the

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farmhouse took a little bit longer than we thought. But we got all the flooring fixed. So now it has all new sub flooring and all new plank flooring. And we redid all the electrical, we discovered old cloth covered wiring, which 100 and 50 years ago, that's

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what everybody did. It's just wires with some cloth around it. Well, it's so you can breathe on it and it falls off and you don't want to even think about it. So I had my electrician pull everything out. Downstairs on the first floor, all the walls

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were basically exposed because we had to do so much work. So the electric in the first floor is like normal, people would expect it to be. And, but upstairs, we didn't have to move a bunch of walls up there. We just added one in. Otherwise it's

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all the same. So in order to save some money and to appease the, the village, because they told us we'd have to make a, put a sprinkler system in and that house is so little and it would have cost me a fortune. So we put the

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electric on the outside of the walls in which it's painted. You wouldn't. Nobody even has said, why is the electric on the outside of the wall? Nobody's even noticed that it's there. But anyway, so all of the building has now got a new roof, it has

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new siding, it has new windows, it has everything, having owned the building since 1997 which is when we purchased it. Over the over time we replaced the windows, they were original windows with one pane of glass in them and not very insulating. I will say so

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that we have, you know, windows that are up to date the uh we had some storm damage to the roof. Well, I think that was probably in 22. And so our insurance company replaced the roof and we replaced the siding. At the same time when we

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went to replace the siding, we discovered that they had put asbestos siding over the original siding of the house. And so I, I went to the village and said, ok, you know, this is asbestos siding. What do we do? And they told me, well, you don't

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need a permit for siding because it's an outside project and there's no problems there so they can just take it off. Ok. So they did, they took that off. Um I have some incredibly neat pictures of the original siding of the house and the corners were

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amazing because they're carved from, you know, a, a tree post, you know, and they're just, I, you know, I just can't tell you, I almost didn't cover it because, uh uh but there's places where there's some holes and it doesn't even look like it was really

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painted. I don't know, why that is, it looks like it's just wood, but there are lots of places where there's holes and there's no place I could get boards that would look like that and I would have to paint it. Then it wouldn't look any different

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than anybody else's house. So I put vinyl siding on it anyway. And we needed insulation. There isn't a lot of insulation in the walls and so they did it the right way. And so the, the house that you see now is basically other than the original

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studs and, and wood that are there. It's original, uh you know, but it's all new, what we could upgrade. So it was a fun project. There used to be kitchens upstairs and down there isn't anymore. There's just the bathrooms, but they're in the original place. Some

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porches there, there's a entrance to the basement that looks like it's a storm cellar, like I say. So there's one, if you've seen the Wizard of Oz, you know how they, she's Auntie Em and she's pulling on the door, that's what it looks like. And, but

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it's underneath the rear porch, they covered it when they built the porches onto the building. So the only access to the basement is now a stairs that are inside that are interesting and to say at least, but anyway, so the, the, the grocery store will be

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100 years old in 2026. It's a cinderblock building. It has a more modern basement because it was built in, in the twenties. Uh pretty much right before the stock market crash in 29. So it's, it's kind of interesting that he, you know, there had to be

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a hard time to open up a business and you just get started bu and you've built this building, I, I like to have been a fly on the wall for that, but throughout all of it, that's certainly talking with Mr Ries as we were going, he

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was watching our projects and the things that we've done with the driveway and he helped us with the driveway. His son had a backhoe. So he came over and dug up the grass and made us to draw a parking lot. We've learned little bits and pieces

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of what happened in the area. So the, uh, the stage coaches, one thing, the, um, they moved, I knew they moved the church from over by Greenbrook area now to where it is and just bad in the parsonage and plopped it on the other side

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of the cemetery and it had to be an interesting thing too, to watch them move across the, the ground with logs of these two buildings and, and set them up there. So there's the, um, the books that he gave me that you've, you've done and researched

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and it had some other articles from the newspapers that I found. I pieced together the different buildings, the Anna Marek house was one of the most fun things to see. I met her a couple of times. She was always wearing a hat and, um, you know,

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I would say kept to herself a lot. I mean, I would see her and she eventually knew that I lived there. Um, she was quite old. Um, but we had put together two art fairs in the park prior to it being renovated by the village years

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ago for the gallery. And my husband was a, a very accomplished jazz musician. And so we put his, uh, organ out there and he played in the little gazebo and she would come over and listen to him play both times. She sat out there for the

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longest time listening to him. So it was kind of fun. So I did talk to her a couple of times and she, you know, she was very, very nice, really. I never met her sister, but I do have pictures of that house, which is, which burned

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down after she passed away suddenly. So I, I had taken pictures of her house, which is on the other side of where Kevin is. So, um, now that's owned by, I think he's, I think he's Polish. He's a, uh, does construction, then he fixed up the

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little house, but hers was next door and had burned down. And I think it looks like he bought the, the lot because they're using it for some other stuff. You know, the, the there are just little things that happen around there that over the years it's

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interesting to, to make note of and like I say, people don't really know about some of it. I, I know in the, the Prairie Station Pub had several owners which I document in my booklet and then you can go in the basement and see some of

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the equipment from the milk times because you can't get it out of there. So, and so, I mean, it's just there. So, you know, it's kind of interesting, but who goes down to see that the backdrop of the bar came from the Chicago Exposition and half

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of it is in the bar at Prairie Station. The other half was in the bar over in Bartlett that I think they tore down. Unless it's in that state farm building there, there were two taverns next to each other. I'm not, I'm not sure which one

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if they kept the bar or not. But those were the, they bought, the two brothers bought the bar from the fair and it was too big for. So they cut it in half and each of them got half of it for their bar. So, I mean,

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there's just little silly things that you learn when you talk to the because Bob had lived there for a long time. So he, he had followed it and when things came up for sale, he picked up and bought bought different parcels there. So he had five

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lots there. So it was interesting. Anyway, that kind of gives you the stuff I know. So the Benners Cash and carry, I have a photo when it was called and there's a sign that says the prim and prim cuts off. Yeah, the sign above uh on

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the Benners cash. And what was after the Benners cash and carrier sometime after says the prim and then the photo cuts off. Well, there was a printing company that bought it from Benners had it and sold it to a printing place or somebody that they were,

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it was actually a newspaper distribute to, they would distribute newspapers out of it. Um They had a cut, there's an 8 ft door on the side of the building which we actually cut down to 6 ft because it was just so rusted. But there was a

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cut out in the middle and they would put a conveyor belt in the middle of that and they would shoot the papers out to the kids who were gonna distribute the papers in the m- four or five in the morning. They would be outside doing uh

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collecting their papers, folding them and making lots of racket. Apparently according to this, my state farm guys, but the printing company sold the place to Mr . I don't know when he told me when he went in there to, to clean it out. They brought in

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a back end of a semi that it was floor to ceiling o old newspapers. I mean, just solid. They had, they filled the whole truck up with newspaper and then he gutted. The upstairs was gutted when we bought it. It was two by twos and cinder

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block. They weren't even two by fours. There were just two by twos attached to the walls for, you know, everything was empty. I do. I've pictures of that too. The downstairs, he put up interior drywall and he put in a new bathroom sink and some plumbing.

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Then there was a little crawl space and I'm not sure if he dug that or it was there, but there's plumbing that goes underneath that section. And so when we bought it, there was a new furnace. He hadn't even hooked up the AC unit yet. There

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was nothing on the floor. There were no rooms downstairs. There was just the post holding up the second floor and some drywall around the outside of the walls. And that was it. They were gonna make a little cafe and maybe rent out the top for office

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spaces. But the village told them they would have to have an elevator and elevators going up and down for people were, he didn't want to spend that kind of money. So he put it up for sale and then we came along and got permission to live

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there and living up there, we can climb up and down the stairs. It's our choice. So that's, that's how we ended up attaining it. So I think we were the fourth owners of that building. Um, from what I've chased down for what I know now. But

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that building also because we, in uh 95 we had to start from scratch. Pretty much. So, everything in there was up to code and through the village planning and all the stuff that we did and the architect drawings, you know, it's all documented. That's, that's, it's

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probably source printing something. Thank you. You're so prepared. And this is so interesting. I live there. It's easy to be prepared when you've lived through it. It's not hard. It's just, you know, there's a lot of, and it's a fun, it was a fun place. I

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don't miss a lot of the, the noise of the trains and the, I mean, the, the freight trains were not as plentiful as they are now, but the freight trains will actually rock the building. Uh You know, I, I really wonder how it's managed both of

00:32:29.969 - 00:32:46.000

these buildings. I mean, I, I don't notice it as much in the farmhouse as I did in the Cinderblock building. It's a lot noisier than when we first moved in there 30 years ago. The they've expanded Lake Street more. It has helped a lot that they

00:32:46.010 - 00:33:04.665

did downsize the Ontarioville Road with this last up updating that the village did because the cars still go fast. Through there, but they were going 45 miles an hour in that wide street and it, it was ridiculous. You come across, uh, and we had, we

00:33:04.675 - 00:33:20.324

had the water main break twice a few years back. And the poor guys are trying to in the winter trying to fix this water main. And these, uh, they were working on building the Elgin o'hare at the same time and all these gravel trucks to and

00:33:20.334 - 00:33:38.040

from would cut through on, on that street. And I mean, they just, they're going 35-40 miles an hour. Uh, and you got workers right here trying to fix a water main with ice all over. And it was kind of scary. I was, I was, you know,

00:33:38.050 - 00:33:53.859

and they, I had called and the cops were patrolling and they put up a load thing to stop them from coming through there for a while. So we don't, now it's too narrow. We still have semis coming down that road and I think they should put

00:33:53.869 - 00:34:09.830

that up again because they can't make that turn. It's kind of tight because they made the road so narrow to slow people down and it is a curve and if you're in the bar trying to get out and somebody's coming around this curve, I can't believe

00:34:09.840 - 00:34:26.679

we've had accidents there. Uh, there had been one, just a couple last month because one of the parkway trees is, is gone. It's broken off. So you're coming this way and it's gonna be around a curve and we've got people turning into our art, the art

00:34:26.689 - 00:34:43.138

building and somebody couldn't stop and took the tree out over here. I mean, people go too fast there and you just can't seem to get them to get the, it says 20 you know, but, you know, you can't get people to slow down. So, but it

00:34:43.148 - 00:35:01.789

has helped that they made it smaller and, and the Benner so that 1926 date um for Benners, that's Fred Benner built that and oh and, and where did you get that information? Well, it's, that's on the tax statement. His name is there. Um he owned, he

00:35:01.799 - 00:35:18.639

um the apparently Fred sold off. They divided the parcel. Yeah, the house here and then there's a line and he gave him and his daughter this parcel of to build the grocery store. So he built the grocery store and in 26 you can his la his

00:35:18.649 - 00:35:35.159

name. Now this parcel is not one, it's two. And so it got, that's where I got it from. It all of a sudden became two and his name was on this one and I knew it was Benners cash and carry and that's when the the money

00:35:35.169 - 00:35:51.610

is coming in for property tax. So I mean, when you go down to the to the archives at the courthouse in Wheaton, you can, I mean, it's microfilm. It, it's very tedious. I was there for the better part of a day and a half. You know,

00:35:51.620 - 00:36:07.810

that's what I, what I found and they don't help you an awful lot. But, you know, I did just keep going back until I could get to where it started and that's where, what I found. Are there any other aspects of Ontarioville history you would like

00:36:07.820 - 00:36:26.520

to discuss? Well, I did, I went through the Anna Marek building with, um, Bob after she had passed away and they had it up for sale. And so he took me through it. And so I did see the, it was the, the third Circuit Court until

00:36:26.530 - 00:36:43.179

they built the Rolling Meadows Courthouse. Um, I don't know what year that actually was built. But, um, so he, you know, the Circuit Court would be just exactly that they would go from this place to that place. It was a circuit and every so many weeks

00:36:43.189 - 00:37:00.010

they would be sitting there and, and have court cases heard at that building. And she was the, from what I understand, she was the second female lawyer in the state of Illinois, which is kind of a cool thing. The first one was Downstate and she was

00:37:00.020 - 00:37:15.570

the first one up here. I know she tried a Supreme court case. There were documents in, hanging on the wall from the Supreme Court and it appears she won her decision. I don't remember what it was for. I think you guys have probably preserved some of

00:37:15.580 - 00:37:31.669

those things from the house before they tore it down. Um So you would know, but, um, the upstairs, I mean, they had put together there was a, well, there used to be a, it was a real estate building that Bob owned, but it was actually the

00:37:31.679 - 00:37:52.179

post office for Ontarioville at one time, uh when he bought it and that was a, a nice building, had a nice basement underneath it and 22 stories also a brick building. Um, not all that old by comparison to what ours were, but next to that

00:37:52.189 - 00:38:11.050

was also a, a general type of little small general store and they moved it across the street and attached it over here. This part here is actually the general store that was across the street. And so when I went through it, the courthouse was in the

00:38:11.060 - 00:38:24.489

front part. So you, when you, there was a, there's a little waiting room here and so you there were benches there that you would sit and wait for your case to be called and then you would be called in and in her desk and her law

00:38:24.500 - 00:38:41.580

books were right kind of across from where the, the judge would sit. So it was a very small little courtroom for the local court cases that they would hear. But interesting to see, you know, that how little and of course, back then there weren't that many

00:38:41.590 - 00:38:57.659

people. So, and they would decide the cases there and you would go on your way. This building was owned by her family for a long time. They had a huge family. The Mareks, she had a sister that lived down the street, but there were a bunch

00:38:57.669 - 00:39:13.149

of kids. So they had bought it. I, I think it was originally, I'm not positive, but I think it originally was the, the used as a hotel because the stage staff would be out here and they would go across to the bar according to what I

00:39:13.159 - 00:39:30.709

read when the family bought it, they kicked out some ladies of a little ill repute um from the upper level. So they were utilizing some of the rooms up there that maybe weren't being used. The buyer wasn't doing it anymore, you know. So they went across

00:39:30.719 - 00:39:48.110

to this, this and it was uh Drover Hotel, but then they added this piece on and it kind of ruined that they keep adding things on, but it kind of ruined what happened here because these roofs were splitting apart and they couldn't save the building. So

00:39:48.120 - 00:40:04.149

it was kind of sad, but upstairs was, was uh there was a would have made a real good banquet area. There's a nice big kitchen area and a meeting room up above up here. Now that and there were rooms, but you, it would have been easy

00:40:04.159 - 00:40:22.590

to kind of make it a, you know, wedding venue or something, but there wasn't a lot of parking around, around the building to be able to accommodate those, uh, a crowd of people either. So, but she had a real pretty rose stained glass window up there

00:40:22.639 - 00:40:43.379

and the, the attic and you wouldn't think attics would be fun to see. But you climb up there and the trusses, I mean, the, this was an old building too, so they weren't just like boards, they were crossed and like, they cut down the whole tree,

00:40:43.679 - 00:40:57.719

like almost like a Lincoln log kind of thing. It was real pretty though. You could see the, the light coming through this one little window in the back and it was a real different structure. I'd never seen anything like it before. So I was sad. But,

00:40:57.729 - 00:41:17.139

um, but their basement was still a dirt floor. They had used that I, uh, from what I read in some, one of the things I read as the jail. So they had put and like they had chain, you know, handcuff things. So, yeah, they weren't there

00:41:17.149 - 00:41:34.270

when they were gone, but the basement was not a basement. It was just a dirt floor and there was walls, you know, the basement in our house, they poured it over the years somewhere. Somebody poured out an actual floor. So, um, you know, it's a little

00:41:34.280 - 00:41:54.389

bit upgraded from what that was, but the, there'd been no sewer and water in the place. There'd been no heat for years. So, it, you know. No, it would have taken by the time you, you know, you, you can only rebuild so far. Yeah. So it

00:41:54.399 - 00:42:12.439

was kind of sad to see it go. But, you know, these are the, the village put up these old fashioned gas lights. Now they're, those are gone. Um, they got modern ones but they're cute. The original gazebo that they put here. They dedicated in 82 in

00:42:12.449 - 00:42:27.909

October. And we moved in, in December. And so I worked with Sonia to um when I we we first were moving in there and building the place, we started working on it in August. So I worked with her prior to her passing. So I remember her.

00:42:27.919 - 00:42:48.149

So that was, that was a, a fun, she was very nice person. So I mean that that's a fun place, the, the church and the parsonage, but this was called Smyrna when we moved in. Now it's changed to community of hope. I think this when we

00:42:48.159 - 00:43:06.679

moved in the Prairie Station pub was, I think John had just bought it. I'm not sure he had put the sign up yet. I don't because it came along and, and he's the one that added in the um he was sleeping as a little house looking

00:43:06.689 - 00:43:18.520

part. So he was, there's a shower and bathroom and a little bit of a kitchen in there. And so he was kind of hiding out in there when, because he was renovating all of this rest of this, but he had just pur purchased it. I think

00:43:18.530 - 00:43:34.330

about the same time we did and then was renovating everything because it was run down too. He did a nice job of, of fixing things up and he wanted to have the beer garden. So we went to all the village meetings for the beer garden. The

00:43:34.530 - 00:43:52.580

only issues we had was, you know, we sleep there and we, we didn't want to have music going till three in the morning. But they, so they said he had to be quiet after 11. So that was fine. The building right next in between the Benner

00:43:52.590 - 00:44:11.040

building and the Prairie Station pub was a factory. They, I don't know what they actually made there, but it was an, a actual factory and Bob bought it when I don't know at some point in time because he owned it when we moved in and he

00:44:11.050 - 00:44:31.570

used it to repair mach- vending machines and gaming machines and things that you would see in various places. Um, he would pick them up and bring them and he'd fix them and then take them back. So he was always putzing around doing, fixing something there. And

00:44:31.580 - 00:44:53.610

so it was full of all kinds of machinery. And the village tore that down too and made a parking lot. So which is handy. This one, this is the executive house and that one was built for the, the manager of the milk co op and his

00:44:53.620 - 00:45:13.889

family. So they lived there for, I would imagine quite a, quite a while. But my encounter with the building was we needed a place. The Hanover Park wanted Hano- Hanover Park wanted to have a chamber of commerce. So we formed a chamber and we need a

00:45:13.899 - 00:45:31.020

place to be, that would be reasonably priced. And so we actually rented this where this window and there's another one on the other side of the building, that first floor area for the, the Hanover Park Chamber. My son-in-law designed the logo for that. We had it

00:45:31.030 - 00:45:48.939

for not very long getting it going, just, you know, was a little bit too hard for people to really stick it out as volunteers, you know, you needed to have a full paid person and it never got off the ground enough to pay someone. So it

00:45:48.949 - 00:46:06.340

ended up going, merging with Bartlett and turning into what it is today. The Bartlett Chamber of Commerce at Bartlett area, I think they call it. So which I'm a member of, but that was, you know, now there was Mr ordered, uh, bought that building his

00:46:06.350 - 00:46:22.199

office. He was a financial guy, did financial planning and that kind of stuff, his offices were upstairs and then he would rent out these bottom ones. I'm not sure who owns it. Now, after he passed away, the kids kept the office going up there, but they

00:46:22.209 - 00:46:36.199

sold the building and I know there's an American family insurance person in there. But I don't know, there's someone else that's renting our own or maybe it's the owner of the building. I haven't met them. And then this is, this is Sonya's gazebo that I drew.

00:46:36.760 - 00:46:55.030

So it's a little different. Now, the thing opens on the other way. So, but that's the view from my, my living room window down to the, down to the gazebo. Anyway, that, that's pretty much um there was a, like I said, that was a post office

00:46:55.040 - 00:47:15.739

there, Bob's house was there from one of the original farmhouses. He had a garage on the other side of his that he converted to a little one bedroom house and there was a garage behind in the little field behind us, behind the art building. There was

00:47:15.750 - 00:47:31.520

another house, but it was originally a garage and he converted it to a little one bedroom house and there was a German family that lived there when we moved in, they were back there living and just he would charge them some small amount of rent or

00:47:31.530 - 00:47:50.250

whatever. Um So, but those things are gone now. So it's kind of sad, but I can't think of, that's probably about all that I can think of. What do you do for fun in Hanover Park and the surrounding area? Things like singing, live music, going out

00:47:50.260 - 00:48:10.800

with friends, attending clubs or anything else. And are there any parades or celebrations in Hanover Park? That you enjoy. Uh, well, Hanover Park is always, I, I lived in Hanover Park back in, um, early, well, around probably 1975 I lived on Park Avenue for several years.

00:48:10.810 - 00:48:25.340

And then we moved to, to Wauconda. There used to be a swimming pool, right be, you know, the park district was being built there. They had the tennis courts or whatever and, but there was an outdoor swimming pool, I think I want to say it was

00:48:25.350 - 00:48:41.350

Ahlstrand Park. And so we, we would take the, I would take the kids over there for swimming and there were a lot more, seemed like they were, we were at the park district for quite a few things over there. But I don't remember ever seeing

00:48:41.360 - 00:48:57.750

a parade in Hanover Park other than, you know, they just have not really done too many of these community kind of things. When my kids were little, we went to the, the sledding hill there by the park and they actually did shoot off fireworks at one

00:48:57.760 - 00:49:15.820

or two years and then they stopped doing that and that had to be in the probably mid to late seventies they're trying to put from. So as far as events for me to go to now, my kids are grown up. We tend to go to the

00:49:15.830 - 00:49:36.419

Bartlett parade or Bartlett has a big carnival. Now, I know they have a carnival usually over by the park district once they've had it for the last few years. But it's always, it's, the activities are very small, just, you know, it's, it doesn't necessarily have this,

00:49:36.429 - 00:49:53.280

the pull of the bigger events that Bartlett does or Schaumburg, September Fest, for example, and their huge parade that they have, if you're talking about those kinds of things, they are doing more things in Hanover. We've, we went to one of the music nights that they've

00:49:53.290 - 00:50:10.040

started the movie nights now. So, I mean, Han- is, uh, Hanover was trying to do more, I think for families here. I, I wish I could put my finger on what it is that you, I mean, they do kind of advertise but it's always kind of

00:50:10.050 - 00:50:27.419

been just, you go someplace else, you come home to Hanover to go to bed and you go someplace else for all the other stuff is how it's been forever. The, the little parks for the kids to play in of, they're doing better at fixing some of

00:50:27.429 - 00:50:46.770

those up now. I think they've gotten some grant money, but the Park District is a nonprofit. It's not related financially to the village. And I think that's been a detriment to the town. Um, we don't have a, we have an outdoor pool but we don't have

00:50:46.780 - 00:51:07.219

an indoor one. You know, we have uh, the Park District facility. I mean, there's a huge bunch of huge bunch of land. They could build an addition on, uh, you know, uh, they've catered to, um, tennis, racketball now it's pickleball but there's, you know, yeah, I

00:51:07.229 - 00:51:22.649

know they have a, a gym but it's, there's no walking track for the winter. You know, you go to Bartlett, there's an, uh, a pool, there's an upper walking track around. There's things that you can do year round there and it's, it's not just so focused

00:51:22.659 - 00:51:40.879

on one thing and I think that's turned off a lot of people and, I mean, if you don't play tennis every day, the park district doesn't have a big allure that, that's might not be true, but that's the general mindset. So you have to work pretty

00:51:40.889 - 00:52:02.969

hard to change that. And if without building a pool and having swimming lessons year round and having more families being able to come to this facility, you're not gonna change that mindset. And the park district being a nonprofit doesn't pull enough money and I guess to

00:52:02.979 - 00:52:21.340

do these kinds of things for a growing community. So, uh, and I think that's kind of stymied where Hanover Park has not been able to grow as well as it should have. People go other places for that kind of recreation. So it's kind of sad because

00:52:21.350 - 00:52:40.870

it's a nice town. It really is. We got a great, they've, they consolidated the volunteer fire department into a really, just a wonderful police department and fire department. They're really good. And, um, our, our current mayor, I just can't say enough about him. He's terrific. You

00:52:40.879 - 00:52:55.090

know, there's, there's a lot more that could be done, but it's always takes a lot of time and, uh, uh, planning and, and I know they're working at it, so hopefully they'll get there. But you can't, where would you go to have a parade in Hanover

00:52:55.100 - 00:53:15.929

Park? You know? Really? You can't shut down Lake Street. So maybe when they get some cons new construction over where, where I am you'll be able to actually, they're gonna have streets there and Liberty Street is gonna go in behind our buildings and that whole section,

00:53:15.939 - 00:53:36.719

there's a lake back behind me that's gonna be developed for housing for single family homes and, and shopping and all of that in a, on a more hometown street looking thing as opposed to the big strip centers. So I, I think that will be really nice

00:53:36.729 - 00:53:55.729

if they, they, the villages worked pretty hard to redo a zoning plan that makes a huge difference. And I think that will help get, get some people to develop this land and to actually make ac a town center for Hanover that that's, you know, they're trying

00:53:55.739 - 00:54:10.560

to do, they've had some events. The Corks and Crafts was a, is a nice one. I understand this year they're doing a soiree which I'm not really sure what that is, but I guess we'll find out which is another thing, you know, you, it takes years

00:54:10.570 - 00:54:28.429

for people to build up and expect to see certain things happening. You do it for, they've done the Corks and crafts for probably four or five years now. And all of a sudden they decided not to do that. They're gonna do this soiree thing, which I,

00:54:28.439 - 00:54:41.790

there's signs all over town, all I know about it is there's a laser light show in the evening. How many people know what a soiree is, you know, uh, the, the, I don't know that I just kind of look at this and say, you know, people

00:54:41.800 - 00:54:57.889

are not necessarily that savvy you need to kind of tell them what you want them to do, but, you know, it's not up to me. I just live here, you know, it's whatever. So I have gone to some things I do. They have a, since COVID,

00:54:57.899 - 00:55:13.229

they've done a trick or trunk or treat over at the park district, which I've done since the beginning. They used to do a Christmas tree lighting at the village where we would, all the businesses could decorate a tree, but they've moved it over to where my

00:55:13.239 - 00:55:30.469

street is now and they don't do the tree decorating anymore because trees are expensive, I guess is what I was told. So, but I would think it would be great to have those trees all around that park decorated for people to walk around. I mean, I'm,

00:55:30.479 - 00:55:48.810

I suggested it, but like they told me, well, the trees are kind of expensive so they opted for just doing the one night thing with the little park that they made. You know, it's just money, it's, money is a big thing as far as activities. We,

00:55:48.820 - 00:56:03.899

I look for things to go to but I don't have little kids anymore. So, and there aren't a lot of things for older people to, you know, go party at, you know, well, we can look at the, the, they have the flea market. I go to

00:56:03.909 - 00:56:20.250

that usually in the train station, I haven't made the car show only once. Usually have the car show in August that's coming up. But I've usually been out of town for that and it just happens to fall on a weekend that I'm not there, but I

00:56:20.260 - 00:56:36.500

have made one or two of them walked around that. So, I mean, it, it, it's just rare for older adults. If you got families, then some of these things are more fun for them. So, I'm sure they go to more of them than I do. Do

00:56:36.510 - 00:56:56.219

you come to the library? I don't, like I said, my husband and I played for the opening of the one, the Schaumburg version of it over in Irving. We opened that library that when they built it with music. So, but my grandson, you know, they, they

00:56:56.229 - 00:57:15.409

go to the Bartlett Library a lot and they go to the Schomburg library. So they've been taking him to all of the libraries around and, um, So, I, I know they've been here too so they, they do use, utilize the libraries. That's, that's true. What are

00:57:15.419 - 00:57:35.629

your memories of the COVID pandemic experience? And what kinds of ways did the community come together to help others? COVID was pretty devastating for, for the music school because they shut the park districts down. And so our feeder groups and things that we didn't even have

00:57:35.639 - 00:57:57.100

those coming in. We did a lot of virtual lessons for sure. And we managed to keep afloat. I did have to get a small SB a loan but that got us through and I got it through Wintrust Bank, the Community Bank, which was was good. They,

00:57:57.110 - 00:58:18.870

they were good. They worked, you know, to help the community. I think they were the best one. But, you know, the, the whole situation, we, we actually were pretty lucky because they lifted, they allowed like individual things with masks and, and if it was less than

00:58:18.879 - 00:58:37.580

10 people, you know, it was ok, they answer, they lifted restrictions. So we were not totally shut down except for just maybe a month. And then after that, some of these restrictions allowed us to people who were OK with coming in with masks on. Um We

00:58:37.590 - 00:58:55.110

directed them so that we'd use, come in one door, go out another one. So we had a flow. We didn't have people crossing and we, we used masks and sanitized things between every student and all of that. And so we had people that, you know, came

00:58:55.120 - 00:59:18.399

in every week and it kept us afloat. We managed to get through it, but it dropped our enrollment from over 300 to about 100 and 50. And it's, it's kind of interesting after it pretty much ended, it didn't take even a year. I had calls. Oh,

00:59:18.409 - 00:59:37.719

my goodness. It was, we were back up to twice, doubled in size within six months of when those restrictions were lifted and they were all new people. They, they weren't the ones that had dropped because of COVID didn't necessarily come back. These were all new people.

00:59:38.050 - 00:59:59.790

So, and we're back up to what we used to be before. So, yeah, it, it's kind of the community wants music lessons. We've been here for 42 years while 30, 30 of them here were the neighborhood spot for music and art. So it was good. It was

00:59:59.800 - 01:00:19.389

good to know that the community knew we were here and was waiting for the, to come back. So it kind of bolstered my sense of like, I think we belong here because we did bounce back. And so it was good. We didn't have to close down

01:00:19.399 - 01:00:33.750

or like a lot of businesses had to. But it helps too because we had, we own the buildings and, you know, when you're renting something, the rent goes up and it's harder and harder to, to make more money. So it helps that, that we had bought

01:00:33.760 - 01:00:50.239

the buildings when we did years ago. And so our rents are not super high kind of a thing. So, but yeah, that was a, it was a blow. The 2008 was a blow too when we had all of that crash with all the housing and stuff.

01:00:50.250 - 01:01:06.429

That was tough. But we had the park district still sending us students through that time and a lot more people came through the park districts because the, it was cheaper and they could start and the ones that want to keep going, they'll find a way to

01:01:06.439 - 01:01:26.260

keep going, you know, and then stay. So it, I mean, we managed to weather that one too. I wondered for a while, but we managed to weather that too. So, you know, i it's a grace of God, that's all I can say. You just kind of

01:01:26.270 - 01:01:42.800

do what you can and hope for the best. So, but yeah, we're back up to normal. So it's a memory that I don't care to relive too often. Are there any other Hanover Park memories you'd like to discuss or any other topics you'd like to discuss?

01:01:42.969 - 01:02:03.760

Well, we talked about, you know, events and that was kind of probably the, the most things that I, if I looking at Hanover as an overall community, it's a good one, relatively safe. Um, as far as I can tell, I mean, even when we've had bad

01:02:03.770 - 01:02:19.260

things happen, like I say we have a terrific police department. They just seem to find whoever they've done a couple of things that, uh I think have helped over the years. They, they get rid of graffiti. They get, they, they're right on top of some of

01:02:19.270 - 01:02:41.020

these things to not have them have a home place in Hanover. They're on top of it and that makes a difference in the community. So I like to see them have more retail type businesses. We don't have, for example, a car dealership, car dealership gives you

01:02:41.030 - 01:03:00.030

a lot of retail tax revenue. And I mean, we have a bank on every corner. They don't, that's a service industry. And in order to build up the park districts or build up some of these things, you need tax money coming back and you know, the

01:03:00.040 - 01:03:17.939

retails sales tax is what funds a lot of things. So I, you know, I, I keep watching for them to build up this little town behind me and have retail businesses in there to help boost our stuff. I think the, the mayor I know has been

01:03:17.949 - 01:03:37.179

very instrumental in keeping uh Caputo's from leaving. They were going to leave and he's from what I understand has managed to, they're gonna, they did renovate and they're going to stay and that's, I mean, that's retail sales tax and it comes back to help us pay

01:03:37.189 - 01:03:54.570

bills. So our property taxes don't have to fund everything and then people don't move out of Hanover because they can't afford to live here. So, though, the, that kind of planning is I, I pay attention to that a lot. Uh And always have, I was a

01:03:54.580 - 01:04:09.530

member of the Connect Committee for a while now. It's, I'm back on the committee. I, I, my husband was sick so I just didn't feel I could be gone, but I, I join now. They call it the Economic Development Committee. They have a new name, but

01:04:09.540 - 01:04:29.209

I think it helps to kind of be involved in the community and offering suggestions like, like that, let's get some tax revenue back in here. You know, is the, is the thing a lot of, I mean, Walmart and Sam's, those were in Streamwood and they look

01:04:29.219 - 01:04:46.719

like they're right next door, but we don't get that revenue, you know. So, um it's nice that we've got the, the Sweet Basil cafe that's gonna bring in some, some tax money. So I, I like to see that kind of growth where we got some things

01:04:46.729 - 01:05:01.590

going on. So other than that, I think you, you probably bored you to death already. Oh, this is so interesting. Anita, thank you so much for coming in. Thank you for sharing your expertise. We really appreciate it. It was fun. It's my pleasure.