Since the late 1800s, the intersection of Marion Street and North Boulevard has been part of the commercial center in what we now call Downtown Oak Park. In the 1870s, the Northwestern train station began redefining the residential streetscape, catalyzing the creation of a bustling business district. In the 1970s, as the national trend towards enclosed pedestrian malls settled here, Marion and Lake streets transmuted in an effort to compete with our retail neighbors to the west as the Oak Park Mall was created. But now, on Nov. 20, historic Marion Street will, as Lake Street did years ago, return to its original openness with a durable, quaint and historic facelift in an effort to rejuvenate the heart of the local business district.
In the late 1800s, Marion Street between North Boulevard and Lake Street had a dirt road with a country village feel, even with the train tracks being there, says Frank Lipo, executive director of the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest. Circa 1887 and through the 1890s, the residential homes eventually were replaced by a three-story brick bank (where Marion Street Cheese Market and Prairie Bread Kitchen are now), the Park Hotel (the former Spauldings site) and Oak Park’s first post office. By 1915 the viaduct went in for the Northwestern train. And that year brick pavers replaced the dirt road. Over the growth years that followed that stretch also landed George Hemingway Realty, Ernest’s uncle, as well as other businesses. By 1925 globe lights lined the street. In fact, many of the buildings that existed then are standing today.
“Marion Street is a good example of a country hamlet on a train line that has a spurt of larger scale commercial developments including a black smith, a general store and a banking center. Also, like we have now, initially it was transitioning from less density to more density,” says Lipo, who served on the committee that planned Marion Street’s reopening. “The stores here, then and now, have been locally owned, with a few exceptions, and at one time, there was actually a grassy park in front of the train station. From the 1920s to the 1960s they started calling this area the Lake/Marion Business District, or downtown Oak Park, and they decided to close off Lake Street from Harlem to Forest and Marion Street in 1974. It was heralded as this great new shopping experience.”
In 1988, after much angst and community debate, Lake Street reopened. As a compromise, Marion Street remained closed until this spring when the Oak Park village board, with community input, began the re-streeting project to improve traffic flow in the Downtown area and to recall some of the historic character, including the brick pavers and globe street lights. Initially, a historic marker will be placed on the south end of Marion. Later on the goal is to have an historic marker on the other end and one in the middle, and eventually a fourth marker will be placed on the newly reopened Westgate.
“We live in a very distinctive place, with all these layers of history,” says Lipo. “I am hoping that this public investment in the infrastructure and streetscape on Marion Street will help to bring some private revitalization of the historic buildings so we have a link to the past, with some good new businesses that will attract people to the area, but while creating an ambience and a sense of place that evokes some local history. There is the promise of that.”