The Village of Hoffman Estates: An Atypical Suburb

By Cheryl Lemus and Mayor William D. McLeod

Established in 1955 by home builder and entrepreneur Jack Hoffman and incorporated in 1959, the Village of Hoffman Estates has flourished into one of the largest suburbs in Northeast Illinois. In this commemorative history celebrating fifty years of the Village, Cheryl Lemus uncovers the unique character and spirit that emerged as Hoffman Estates grew from an isolated farmland where residents woke to the sounds of cows mooing into a modern vibrant suburb with a strong business and residential community. What started out as a typical neighborhood development has today blossomed into an atypical suburb, defying stereotypical expectations and conventions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Aug 28, 2009
• ISBN: 9781625843210

Cheryl Lemus

Cheryl Lemus is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Northern Illinois University. She has been commissioned by the Village of Hoffman Estates to write the commemorative history for the Village's 50th anniversary. She is also adjuncting as a history instructor at Aurora University and William Rainey Harper College and peer reviewing for the NeoAmericanist. In the past, she was also Senior Associate Editor for Southern Historian and served as the Historic Preservation Coordinator for the City of Elgin, where she documented historic buildings and administered the grant program. Lemus has presented her work at many historical conferences and is a member of the Organization of American Historians. Since 2003, she has been an active member of various History committees at NIU.

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Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright © 2009 by Cheryl Lemus

All rights reserved

First published 2009

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.62584.321.0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lemus, Cheryl.

The village of Hoffman Estates : an atypical suburb / Cheryl Lemus.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

print edition ISBN 978-1-59629-807-1

1. Hoffman Estates (Ill.)--History. 2. Hoffman Estates (Ill.)--Social life and customs. 3. Suburban life--Illinois--Hoffman Estates--History. 4. Community life--Illinois--Hoffman Estates--History. 5. Suburbs--Illinois--Chicago--Case studies. I. Title.

F549.H69L46 2009

977.3’1--dc22

2009030533

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

Foreword, by Mayor William D. McLeod

Preface: There’s a History of Hoffman Estates?

Acknowledgements

Chapter One. We Were All in the Same Boat

You Moved Where??

A Community from Mud

Old Fashion Spirit Typifies New Home Site

There Were Kids Everywhere!

A Changing Community

Chapter Two. A Suburb Grows Up

To Incorporate or Not to Incorporate, That Is the Question

Hoffman Estates vs. Twinbrook

Ladies and Gentlemen: The Village of Hoffman Estates

Growing Pains

Moving Forward?

Corruption in Suburbia

Chapter Three. A Stop in the Golden Corridor

Music, Sweet Music

Business Is a Suburb’s Best Friend

The Gold Strike of 1988

Epilogue: Looking Ahead to the Next Fifty Years

Appendix: History of Elected Officials, 1959–2009

Notes

A Note on Sources

FOREWORD

Hoffman Estates was developed as part of the post–World War II demand for housing and open space that led to the creation of new communities in the suburban areas of the nation’s largest cities. Hoffman Estates is strategically located along the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (Northwest Tollway) a short distance from the Chicago O’Hare International Airport. The history of Hoffman Estates is about the people who moved here and built a full-service, thriving community.

In this book, you will learn about the evolution of Hoffman Estates from a bedroom community of Chicago into a business center with corporate headquarters, a large medical complex and strong retail presence. You will read about some of the important people who contributed to the development of Hoffman Estates, such as Sam and Jack Hoffman of Father & Son Construction, who built not only the first houses but also a very large percentage of all homes in Hoffman Estates. The Hoffmans also built and donated the first public schools in our community.

Mayor Virginia Mary Hayter, the first female mayor of a major Chicago metropolitan community, brought Poplar Creek Music Theatre to Hoffman Estates, which first earned our village recognition within the metropolitan area. One of Mayor Hayter’s successors, Mayor Michael J. O’Malley, together with Governor James Thompson, brokered the deal that kept Sears Holdings Company in the state of Illinois and relocated its corporate headquarters to Hoffman Estates.

Hoffman Estates is similar to many suburban communities in some ways but unique in others. Our community has three separate and distinct sections—north, south and west—divided by large forest preserves. Over 40 percent of the landmass in Hoffman Estates is open space, a unique and wonderful benefit.

Mayor William D. McLeod. Courtesy of the Village of Hoffman Estates.

What follows is the story of Hoffman Estates—the good, the bad, the scandals and the triumphs. This is our story.

We wish to give special recognition to Cheryl Lemus, who has tirelessly, and with great dedication, worked on putting this book together.

Mayor William D. McLeod

PREFACE

There’s a History of Hoffman Estates?

When I received the e-mail from Jim Norris, village manager of Hoffman Estates, announcing the search for a historian to write the history of Hoffman Estates, I was immediately intrigued. My first knowledge of Hoffman Estates was as a preteen growing up in Chicago. I won tickets to see Huey Lewis and the News at Poplar Creek and was very excited about going to my first concert. Of course, the drive out drew several comments like, Who lives out here?? For a city kid, the suburbs seemed alien. That changed when my mother moved me out to Wheeling when I was seventeen, a move I cursed her for at the time but now applaud her for making. Anyway, Hoffman Estates remained in my periphery until I moved out to Carpentersville with my husband, at which time the Village became much more a part of our lives since he and I eventually began working there. So, again, the job call definitely roused my interest, although I did not apply right away because I was already teaching, advising and working on my dissertation, as well as raising two toddlers. But I could not stop thinking about the posting. So I e-mailed Jim, who responded quickly, asking me to come in for an interview. I guess you can say the rest is history.

Since October, I have come to appreciate the history of the Village of Hoffman Estates. When I first started to create an outline for this book, I envisioned a traditional chronological narrative. I thought that by following a timeline, I could incorporate the stories and the people that shaped the past fifty years. However, while most stories have a clear start, middle and end, Hoffman Estates’ history is not a classic tale of a postwar suburb that emerged from the middle of a cornfield—if that even exists, which I am inclined to say does not. In many respects, the Village’s past challenges most legends and assumptions that surround the rise of suburban America, from the belief that harmony reigned within the pristine manufactured communities to the acceptance that the makeup of the suburbs was solely white, middle-class families of a particular faith. Does Hoffman Estates fit this description? Yes and no. There can be no doubt that Hoffman Estates met most of the criteria of a typical suburb: tract homes, young families and seemingly endless pride in conformity. But this stereotype and nostalgic perception skirts the reality. The appearance of conformity did not mean idleness and passivity. The construction of instant communities did not mean isolation. The youthfulness did not mean naïveté. In that regard it is not typical.

Before Hoffman Estates’ incorporation in 1959, residents tested its image as the stereotypical enclave of suburban life. They took it upon themselves to create a community out of absolutely nothing. That meant that there was a personal attachment to the creation of Hoffman Estates. The suburb faced many challenges pretty much from the moment it decided to vote on whether to incorporate. However, those challenges and obstacles only seemed to push the Village forward. At the same time, there are two images of the Village: residential and commercial. In the development of these two incarnations, three themes or phases—community, government and business—emerged that tell a different period of Hoffman Estates’ history, although there is quite a bit of overlap. The early history of the Village is one of a strong residential community, which the suburb remained tied to until the 1970s. In many respects, community became the easiest aspect to cover since so many original residents still live in the Village. Many shared their stories, bringing reality to suburban history. As the community grew up, it began to look to change its image; but residents could not do this alone. The community’s growth and happiness hinged on the effectiveness of the Village’s government. Local government officials were (and are) local residents who, especially early on, spent numerous hours developing and running the Village. Their commitment cannot be questioned. Unfortunately there was a stumbling point in the early 1970s, but officials recognized it as a moment to move forward. From that point, by adding appropriate administrators, the third theme of business exhibits how the second image of Hoffman Estates as a powerful commercial and business entity emerged.

The mayor had one goal in hiring me: to make this book about the people, and not just pages filled with dates, facts and trivia. As many suburbs in Northeast Illinois have celebrated their fiftieth anniversaries in the past couple of years, they have published books celebrating their community and giving their current residents a sense of civic pride; unfortunately, these suburbs have glossed over or even omitted any unpleasant history. If it is addressed, it is added into a side box, created into a funny anecdote or painted as an unfortunate incident that has no bearing on the present-day community. I argue that those stories do have direct influence on a present community. They may not give a suburb a nice clean storyline, but ignoring the complicating parts propagates the myth that local history only gives praise, and at the same time assumes that its current residents have no interest in anything but a celebratory narrative. Additionally, my training as a historian meant that I recognized that people are complicated, which does not allow for a neat chronicle. Emotions (rational or irrational) drive actions (good or bad), and since it is the people who built Hoffman Estates, the innocent suburban façade is challenged. However, I have to admit that this is not a comprehensive history. Not every story is told and not every village department is covered.

That said, this is a commemorative history; therefore, it will celebrate the Village’s growth into one of the largest Northeast suburbs. But I would like to complicate the meaning of commemorative and include the difficulties and thorny issues that the Village faced, enriching the narrative and exhibiting the growing pains, learned lessons and determination to move forward. In the end, residents should close this book with not only a deeper understanding of their community’s history, but also a civic pride that the Village of Hoffman Estates does indeed have a history.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The first thing I usually do when I open an academic narrative is read the acknowledgements. I am always amazed at the gratitude authors bestow on every person who played some