The History of the Milk Pail Restaurant, Country Tea Room, and Country Stores that were located in unincorporated Dundee Township, Kane County, Illinois.

The Milk Pail, formerly the Country Tea Room, and its grounds are steeped in history. 

The northern Fox River Valley was first settled in the 1830s. Originally profiting from its natural resources, the region eventually expanded into manufacturing, earning connections to the Chicago and North Western Railroad in Carpentersville. Increase C. Bosworth, a wealthy businessman from Chicago, settled in the area in 1837. He purchased a 136-acre property from Mr. Clark in 1860. He constructed a farm by the 1860s that featured a farmhouse, windmill, and creamery. The house was in the gable-front style with Italianate details.

Illinois State Route 25 was to be built in the early 20th century to serve the east side of the Fox River, running from Oswego to Algonquin.

"Pepper" the Ostrich

Bosworth's residence was located on grounds adjacent to the planned highway. Seeing an opportunity for development, Max McGraw, who later formed the Toastmaster Co. and the McGraw Edison Co., purchased the property in 1926. McGraw was beginning to accrue tremendous wealth in manufacturing due to the success of his Toastmasters products.

Not to be confused with the Milk Pail Grocery Store (with Wally's Deli inside) in Lincolnwood, Illinois.

He added a single-story extension later that year. Route 25 was opened in 1929, and the Country Tea Room flourished like many roadside restaurants in its day. The road was an important shipping route for dairy products and provided a route for tourists visiting Wisconsin to the north. Customers enjoyed toasting their bread with McGraw's invention, and some bought Toastmasters for their homes. 

When the restaurant opened, automobile travelers' dining options were limited to picnics or fancy hotels. Roadside restaurants filled travelers' need for other options in the 1920s and 1930s. McGraw also maintained the dairy operations of the farm until 1939.

By the end of the 1930s, roadside eateries were spread throughout most major highways. To stay competitive, restaurants needed to provide variety for their patrons to stand out from other establishments. The Country Tea Room initially struggled with this change. To meet the demands of travelers' changing tastes in the 1930s, the teahouse was converted into a full restaurant featuring a game from McGraw's nearby game preserve. Reinventing itself as the Milk Pail Restaurant, a full restaurant with unique entrees.

Part of the property was converted into the "Fin 'N Feather" catalog, which sold smoked game, some featured on the Milk Pail menu. McGraw bought the surrounding land, named it the McGraw Wildlife Foundation, and opened it as a private game preserve. 

The original building faces east, while the 1926 addition faces south. The barn, creamery, and stable that once served the farm still stand to the southwest, although they have been modified throughout their existence and do not contribute to the site's historical value. A parking lot lies to the main building's north and east. The two-story house is a small one-story addition built before the early 1900s. 

The Country Tea House extension 1926 was built on the west side of the house. The vernacular, wood panel house sits on a stone foundation. A chimney is found on the north side of the building. Windows on the east and south elevations feature wooden pediments, and those on the north do not. Asphalt shingles adorn the roof. 

I usually ordered the Ostrich Steak with a double-baked potato. 

The businesses and the restaurant closed in 1996. The main building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 25, 1999.

VISIT OUR MILK PAIL SOUVENIR SHOP

INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The 1960s-1970s Proposed Chicago Crosstown Expressway, designated Interstate 494.

The Crosstown Expressway (Interstate 494), was a proposed highway route in Chicago, Illinois. It was initially proposed in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Crosstown Expressway was to begin from a connection with the Kennedy Expressway and Edens Expressway (Interstates 90 & 94) near Montrose Avenue on the city's Northwest Side. It was to follow an alignment parallel, and adjacent to the Belt Railway of Chicago, approximately one-half mile east of Cicero Avenue and extend southerly over railroad right-of-way through the West Side of Chicago, and across the Sanitary and Ship Canal to a connection with the Stevenson Expressway (Interstate 55).

South of this confluence, the route would continue south in a reverse direction, split-arrangement with the northbound highway lanes depressed along Cicero Avenue and the southbound lanes depressed along the Belt Railway of Chicago tracks. Continuing south past the proposed traffic interchange at Chicago Midway International Airport, the expressway alignment was to turn southeasterly at 67th Street and continue over Belt Railway right-of-way to Lawndale Avenue then turn easterly towards the Dan Ryan Expressway along Norfolk Southern Railway right-of-way (now Metra-South West Service) and 75th Street to an interchange with the Dan Ryan Expressway (Interstate 94) north of 91st Street.

Model for Chicago... Where the Crosstown Expressway Would Be Built. View of Midway Airport in Corner.

Extra lanes were planned to extend north from the proposed Dan Ryan/Crosstown interchange to connect with the Chicago Skyway (Interstate 90) near 66th and State Streets.

Originally the I-494 number was to be used for a freeway upgrade of Lake Shore Drive that was also canceled; when the Crosstown Expressway inherited that number, the LSD proposal was then renumbered to I-694.

The origins of the Crosstown Expressway can be found in Burnham and Bennett's 1909 Plan of Chicago, which proposed a grand circumferential road to divert traffic around central Chicago. The route was incorporated in the Chicago Plan Commission's plans for post-war highway construction. The 1956 Federal-Aid Highways Act spurred extensive construction around Chicago, but by 1960, the Crosstown Expressway was the only route included in the region's postwar transportation plans yet to break ground. The State of Illinois, Cook County, and the City of Chicago formed the Crosstown Expressway Task Force in 1963. According to then Chicago Commissioner for Public Works, Milton Pikarsky, the Task Force aimed "to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed expressway... in sufficient detail so that the need for an expressway could not be challenged". Public resentment over the experience of highway construction in the late 1950s and early 1960s, however, prompted a comprehensive re-evaluation of the Crosstown route.

On February 25, 1967, the federal government proposed the Crosstown Expressway be redesigned as a 'total development concept' that would integrate mass transit, high-rise apartment buildings, commercial and industrial zones, and green space. Mayor of Chicago Richard J. Daley stated the road would be "the most modern and beautiful expressway in the nation". By 1972, the Crosstown Expressway had emerged as the national testing ground for a new kind of urban Expressway centered upon neighborhood integration rather than regional development. Community groups strongly opposed these plans; notably the Citizens Action Program (CAP) and the Anti-Crosstown Action Committee, who turned the proposed Expressway into a pivotal issue in the 1972 local, state, and federal elections. Dan Walker, an independent Democrat defeated incumbent Illinois governor Richard Ogilvie 51% to 49% on a strong anti-Crosstown platform. Governor Walker appeared at the 1973 CAP annual convention to declare the Crosstown Expressway will not be built.

Political wrangling over the Crosstown Expressway continued between Walker and Mayor Daley until the latter's death in December 1976. Changing public opinion on urban highway construction, the mid-1970s energy crisis, and rapidly escalating costs (from the 'total development concept' additions and runaway inflation rates) ultimately undermined the Expressway. Restructured proposals for the southern leg of the Crosstown route were agreed by Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic and Illinois Governor James R. Thompson in March 1977. However, in January 1979, the Crosstown Expressway project was finally canceled by then-Mayor of Chicago Jane M. Byrne and Governor Thompson. In the $2 billion in federal funds earmarked for the Crosstown Expressway and (never-built) Franklin Line Subway was then reallocated to Chicago's struggling regional transit agencies, and to other pressing road improvements across northeastern Illinois. These funds would eventually support the extension of the Blue Line to O'Hare International Airport and the construction of the Orange Line to Midway Airport.

In 2001, Mayor Richard M. Daley announced plans for a Mid-City Transitway, using the alignment of the Chicago Belt Line Railway that the Crosstown Expressway route was to have followed. The Mid-City project was placed in the Chicago Area Transportation Study's Destination 2020: Regional Transportation Plan and still awaits study and approval. Proposals for a Circle Line providing circumferential transit options closer to the Loop have been prioritized over-investment in the Transitway project by city officials and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP).

On February 21, 2007, Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives Michael Madigan proposed legislation that would make a future Crosstown Expressway a part of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA). However, the proposal was not previously looked at by the office of the mayor, governor, the ISTHA or the Illinois Department of Transportation, and did not proceed any further.

Additional Reading: 
The Chicago Crosstown Expressway, by the Commissioner of Public Works, City of Chicago.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.