Wheaton and Glen Ellyn, which share many striking similarities despite their distinct identities, exemplify characteristics long associated with DuPage County, including affluence, conservatism and volunteer spirit.
“It’s very quietly understood that Wheaton and Glen Ellyn are similar in many respects, but they also are distinctly different,” Wheaton Mayor Jim Carr said.
“The two towns are right next to each other,” said Curt Barrett, assistant village manager in Glen Ellyn. “You are going down a residential block and you are in Glen Ellyn, then you are in Wheaton, and you wouldn’t know the difference except for the municipal signs. They have historically grown up very close to each other.”
Both towns were settled in the 1830s — the decade the earliest settlers arrived in DuPage — by pioneers from New England. Glen Ellyn was settled in 1834 by Deacon and Mercy Dodge Churchill and their extended family, and Wheaton was settled in 1837-38 by Erastus Gary and two brothers, Jesse and Warren Wheaton.
In 1849, both towns were linked to Chicago via the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, which later became part of the Chicago & North Western Railroad. In 1888, Glen Ellyn was incorporated as a village, and two years later, Wheaton, which was established as a village in 1859, was incorporated as a city. By then, it was the seat of county government.
Like much of the rest of DuPage County, each was transformed from largely farming communities to suburbs in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
Today, both towns are considered economically vibrant suburbs, and each is enjoying a downtown renaissance fueled by newly built multifamily housing as well as crowds attracted to upscale restaurants.
Their populations are largely affluent. In Wheaton, the median household income in 2000 was $73,385, and in Glen Ellyn it was $74,846, placing them among the top 15 percent of Illinois communities with populations exceeding 10,000, according to U.S. census statistics.
Each town also boasts government stability. Wheaton Manager Donald B. Rose and Glen Ellyn Manager Gary Webster are the two longest-serving municipal administrators in the county.
Both towns, like most of the county, have no major tracts of undeveloped land left, making them “landlocked” in the parlance of suburban sprawl.
Though Wheaton’s population over the past decade grew by nearly 8 percent, to 55,416 in 2000, mostly because of the mixed-use Danada development on the south end of the city that included about 700 single-family homes, its population has since leveled off, according to census statistics. The last major housing development, the Legends of Wheaton now being built, consists of 60 houses.
Glen Ellyn, similarly, saw its population grow by a tad more than 8 percent, to 26,999, mostly because of births and annexations of developed land between 1990 and 2000. Since then, it has added only 188 people, census figures indicate.
During the 1990s and early part of the 21st Century, both towns were wrestling with the same dilemma: how to revitalize commercial areas and housing stock without changing the character of the communities that made them desirable in the first place.
It’s the communities’ character that really defines the two towns in similar ways, officials said. Those characteristics include tree-lined streets, parks, historic structures, high levels of volunteerism and philanthropy, conservative government traditions, well-performing schools and top-flight park districts.
“I think the same level of caring is present,” Carr said of the two towns. “People in Wheaton care, and they participate through a variety of means,” including government, schools, churches and non-profit agencies. “They volunteer their time and money to keep Wheaton a terrific community.”
“It’s really the spirit of the community and the heart of the community that make it a special place,” Glen Ellyn village President Greg Mathews said.
Mathews noted that both communities, particularly in their downtowns, have seen much development in 10 years, a subject about which residents have had much to say at public forums. “It’s two communities that are willing to foster development — as long as it’s good-character development,” he said.
“There are people in both towns who are interested in preserving the history and the general ambience of each community,” Rose said.
The development taking place in both towns has sparked much debate, whether it involves efforts to make sure high-density housing and newly built retail spaces don’t change the character of the historic downtowns or ensuring teardowns — new homes built on the site of razed ones — don’t clash with neighboring homes or the town’s character.
“That’s the balancing act you have to do in any community if you want to maintain your character and move forward at the same time,” said Janie Patch, executive director of the Glen Ellyn Economic Development Corp.
The goal, Carr said, is “to keep the character and culture that has been established. … Wheaton has been able to keep its culture and character and improve on it.”
Like many suburban communities, Glen Ellyn and Wheaton have had teardowns, though the trend has been much stronger in Glen Ellyn, where there were a record 65 teardowns in 2002, said Dale Wilson, the village’s building and zoning officer. Through July 1, there were 43 teardowns, he said.
Responding to community concerns, the board of trustees enacted building restrictions that further limited the height and lot coverage of teardowns as of March 2002.
“You can’t stop the teardown phenomenon,” added Mathews. “There are homes that need replacement.”
Other officials agreed, noting the desire for newer, larger houses and no shortage of people willing to spend an average of $600,000 for each new home. That, they said, has to be balanced against maintaining neighborhood character.
In Wheaton, the teardown pace has been slower, especially considering Wheaton has about 19,400 housing units, compared with about 10,500 in Glen Ellyn. This year, the city expects to have nearly 50 teardowns, the most it has ever had, said Jim Kozik, director of planning and economic development. “It’s noticeable now,” he said.
Though both communities seem to be thriving, even in tough economic times, neither is resting on its laurels. Both have a number of projects on the drawing boards.
“Downtown Wheaton will be an area for development,” said Carr. Among the potential projects is expanding the Wheaton Public Library from 75,000 to 120,000 square feet and linking library grounds to Adams Park.
The city also has established a framework for the potential redevelopment of four blocks southeast of President Street and Geneva Road. That plan suggests mostly single-family homes, some town homes and limited commercial and office space in the area.
If Community Unit School District 200 builds a new middle school in Warrenville, as is being discussed, Wheaton would then consider the redevelopment of the 22-acre Hubble Middle School site just southeast of downtown to make way for condominiums and town homes.
It’s also possible National-Louis University will sell some of the former DuPage County courthouse property it owns on the east end of downtown, which could make way for further development near the Hubble Middle School site, Carr said.
In Glen Ellyn, perhaps the most significant project being considered is the Glen Ellyn Square proposal to build 66 units of senior housing, 8,000 square feet of retail space and a parking deck on a municipal parking lot on Main Street.
In May, the Plan Commission recommended rejection of the initial plans proposed by Mid-America Investment and Development Co. and HPD Cambridge, but the developer has returned with a modified proposal that reduces the apparent size of the structures along Main Street, reduces the number of housing units and improves the parking deck.
There’s also a proposal pending to build town homes east of Panfish Park, a Walgreens is nearly complete on Roosevelt Road and a BP Amoco plan is being reviewed by village officials.
And street and sewer work in Glen Ellyn proceeds apace, after voters in 2000 approved the issuance of $18 million in bonds.
