It is no accident that development follows major thoroughfares.
Look at a Chicago area map and you’ll see how the busiest roads and railways form arrows that point to today’s home-building hot spots: Minooka, Elburn and Huntley, to name only a few.
Nor is it a coincidence that many of these routes predate the development of Chicago and its suburbs. Many are former paths that led Native Americans to and from the same bodies of water and forests that attract today’s residents.
One of these was Ottawa Trail, named for the Native Americans who trod its path. When settlers lined it with wood to accommodate stagecoaches, it became known as the Southwestern Plank Road.
Entrepreneurs including Lisle’s Mark Beaubien, who operated an inn on the road, charged its users tolls. In 1914, traffic picked up speed when the artery was paved.
Later, it was named for the man who was co-founder of the Chicago Board of Trade and the city’s first mayor. His mayoral tenure was short, from 1837 to 1838, but his name lives on, nearly two centuries later, as the moniker of one of the Chicago area’s main routes, cutting southwest from downtown.
What is it?
Answer: Ogden Avenue, named for William Butler Ogden.
