Lost Towns of Illinois - Orchard Place, Illinois.

Orchard Place, Illinois, was a small farming community in Cook County, Illinois, just west of Chicago. 

First known as Farwell, it was settled by German immigrants in 1833. The Farwell Post Office opened in 1881, and then the Post Office's name was changed to Orchard Place in 1887. The Post Office seems to have closed in 1935. 

It became a stop on the Wisconsin Central Railroad in 1887 and received the name Orchard Place at that time. In 1942, Orchard Place was selected as the site of a new air base and aircraft manufacturing facility, Orchard Place Airport/Douglas Field. After the Second World War, the city of Chicago bought the airport from the United States government and converted it into a commercial airport; Chicago Orchard Field opened in 1946.

Before 1950, much of the land in the adjacent community was subdivided into residential lots, and a network of initially unpaved streets was developed. This development covered most of the area bounded by Touhy Avenue on the North, (Des Plaines) River Road on the East, Devon Avenue and Higgins Road on the South, and Mannheim Road. On the West side. The airport lies to the Southwest of the Mannheim/Devon intersection, more-or-less diagonally across that intersection from the Orchard Place community.

These de facto boundaries were altered slightly by the construction of the Northwest Tollway in the mid-1950s, forming a barrier separating it from the largely undeveloped southwestern corner of the area and the airport area in general. Orchard Place evolved into an unincorporated residential suburban area, with housing development proceeding piecemeal as individual lots were purchased by prospective homeowners and speculative builders. The community was annexed by referendum to the City of Des Plaines in 1956. 

The airport was renamed in 1949 to O'Hare International Airport and has grown into the Chicago metropolitan area's primary airport and a central North American transportation hub. Today, the former Orchard Place is the southernmost neighborhood of Des Plaines. 

 

Most early town settlers were buried in Wilmer's Old Settlers Cemetery, which closed in the early 1950s to make room for O'Hare International Airport's access roads. The remains from this cemetery were moved to the 2 remaining cemeteries.

The legacy of its original name persists in O'Hare's airport code (FAA LID: ORD), as well as in the name of Orchard Place Elementary School.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Lost Towns of Illinois - Millville, Illinois.

Millville was initially established in 1835 along the northern Chicago-Galena stagecoach route, which is now in the Apple River Canyon State Park. A roadway today is known as the Stagecoach Trail.

John Frink, Jr. had the first successful stage-line out of Chicago in 1832. The top brass marker commemorates the "Frink & Walker Stage Route Stop."

John R. Smith and the Burbridge family were responsible for the village's first buildings, and a sawmill was erected between 1835 and 1836. It developed as an essential rural service stop along that stagecoach route. Millville was significant in the early history of Jo Daviess County, serving as a civic and commercial hub from 1838–53. The town itself was platted on April 14, 1846, within Rush Township by John R. Smith.

Millville faced a decline after the railroads entered Jo Daviess County during the 1850s. Still, the town served as a minor commercial center for several decades. In 1853–54 the Illinois Central Railroad bypassed Millville, relegating it to a future as a "backwater town." Despite this, two prominent commercial operations remained in business into the late 19th century, the grist mill and a blacksmith shop. The blacksmith shop, eight buildings, two homes and a school are shown in town maps as late as 1872.

The town's fate was sealed by a June 1892 flood which reportedly swept away all of the town's remaining buildings, leaving no trace of Millville in its wake. Heavy rains swelled the pond at the Cox Mill, 1/4 mile from Millville, causing the mill dam to burst. The mill pond waters tore down Clear Creek and poured into the South Fork Apple River, rushing toward Millville. The town's buildings, unable to withstand the deluge, were swept away by the violent river.

The park was purchased by the State of Illinois in 1932, and no visible remnants of its structures remain today. The site of Millville was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as the Millville Town Site in 2003.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.