Skokie Village

Cook County, Illinois

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Skokie Village Hall is located at 5127 Oakton Street, Skokie, IL 60077.
Phone: 847‑673‑0500.

Neighborhoods

Skokie [1] (known as Niles Center prior to 1938) originated as a small prairie town populated mainly by truck farmers servicing greater Chicago. Incorporated in 1888 the village was a sparsely collection of small farms and a single employee who also served as village blacksmith and plumber. The few roads in the area were old Indian trails and the 15 mile journey to Chicago often took a full day, especially in rainy weather.

Around 1907 Samuel Insull saw the villages and prairies lying outside of Chicago as potential markets for his Chicago Electric Company. He amalgamated the city's various street railways and began extending then into the suburbs.

Between 1922 and 1926 land was annexed that increased Niles Center to 10 times its original size. The Niles Water Works System, a metered connection to the Chicago system, was completed. Farmland was purchased, subdivided, paved, and lit at an extraordinary pace. Real Estate prices rapidly escalated.

  1. Nacy Wagner and William Lebed, Dempster Street Station, Cook County, Illinois, nomination document, 1995, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.

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