WHEREAS, in early 1869, Glencoe was a small community of less than 30 homes, a few local stores, a country school, a church, and a railway station connected by dirt roads and an occasional plank or gravel walk that had first been settled by Anson Taylor and several German and English immigrant families only 30 years earlier; and

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WHEREAS, the Village founder, Dr. Alexander Hammond, and his investors from the Glencoe Company gave serious thought and consideration to the development of the community and began a planning process that predates the creation of the first official Plan Commission in the early 1920s and continues to this very day; and

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WHEREAS, on March 29, 1869, the village was officially incorporated under a Special Charter granted by an act of the Illinois State legislature; and

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WHEREAS, since that time, the Village of Glencoe has become a leader and model for other communities being one of the first in the nation, and the first in the State of Illinois, to establish a council-manager form of government in 1914; and

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WHEREAS, since that time, the Village of Glencoe has similarly become a leader and model for other communities in protecting the safety of its residents, from the first constables and magistrates in 1869 and its first motorized fire truck in 1915 to becoming the first municipality in the state of Illinois to combine police and fire protection into a unified Department of Public Safety in 1954; and

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WHEREAS, education has always been a major focus of the community from the first one-room schoolhouse sponsored by early settlers through the construction of Central School in the late 1800s, North and South Schools in the 1920s and West School in the late 1950s, and Glencoe has also been a leader, not just in its commitment to teaching and administrative excellence, but also as the creator of an innovative plan to place parks next to its schools to enrich both the mental and physical development of its youth; and

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WHEREAS, Glencoe’s residential development represents a museum of domestic architectural styles dating from the mid-19th century including the work of noted American architects William Boyington, Howard van Doren Shaw, David Adler, George Fred and William Keck and George W. Maher, among others, renown landscape architects Jens Jensen and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and most notably, the third largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright designed structures in the world; and

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WHEREAS, with its wooded bluffs and deep ravines that led early map makers to declare Glencoe as “Queen of the Suburbs,” the beauty of this community has been preserved through the conservation of Lakefront Park and enhanced over the years with numerous additional parks, the development of the Green Bay Trail and the establishment of the Chicago Botanic Garden in 1972; and

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WHEREAS, the people who have created, developed and kept this community vibrant since its incorporation represent a uniquely diverse group of residents from all racial and ethnic backgrounds, from all religious backgrounds and from all trade and business backgrounds who have shared at least one common bond - their love of and commitment to the Village of Glencoe; and

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WHEREAS, the Village of Glencoe will mark the 150th anniversary of its incorporation on March 29, 2019;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Village President and Board of Trustees of the Village of Glencoe, Illinois proclaim 2019 as a year of celebration in which the 150th anniversary of the community will be celebrated and commemorated through appropriate ceremonies, programs, projects and events.

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FURTHER, I, LAWRENCE R. LEVIN do hereby proclaim the creation of a committee to consist of board members, community leaders and citizens to properly plan and execute this year of celebration.

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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Village President and Board of Trustees of the Village of Glencoe express their gratitude to all of the citizens of the Village of Glencoe, past and present, for their continuing contributions and commitment to the rich cultural and civic history of Glencoe and look forward to celebrating that history with all of the residents of Glencoe in 2019.