Lost Towns of Illinois - Brush Hill, then Fullersburg, Illinois (now Hinsdale).

Fullersburg was a settlement in Downers Grove Township and York Township, DuPage County, Illinois near the Cook County border. The area was originally called Brush Hill and was claimed by Orente Grant when the Indian land in Illinois was ceded to the United States in 1833. 

Benjamin Fuller is known as the founder of Fullersburg. He arrived in 1835, returned east to Broome County, New York, and brought his entire family back with him with the exception of one married sister. There were 13 in the family and it took 17 weeks to travel from New York. The oldest daughters came by boat through the Great Lakes and the rest by covered wagon. Benjamin Fuller served as the postmaster, innkeeper, and storekeeper.

Fuller built his Greek Revival-style farmhouse about 1840. The farmhouse was originally located at 948 North York Road. The house was built using a new technique invented in Chicago called "balloon frame" construction. The Fuller house is probably the oldest remaining example of balloon frame construction in the world.

Graue Mill is Located on Salt Creek in Hinsdale, Illinois.

Fuller started several businesses in the area and owned most of the land in the center of town. One of his early enterprises was "The Farmer's House", a grocery, which is the pioneer word for a bar or saloon. Today, the structure is known as the York Tavern and is privately owned. 

The center of old Fullersburg, located at what is the present-day intersection of Ogden Avenue and York Road, was situated at the crossroads of two Indian trails. Ben Fuller platted this area around the crossroads in 1851. This location, as well as its one day's distance from Chicago, meant that it served as both a trading center for area settlers and a way station for travelers. 

In 1832, the town was a stagecoach destination from Chicago with regular service established by the Frink & Walker Stage Lines by 1834. Wagon and coach traffic became so heavy that a plank road was privately built from Chicago to Naperville, reaching Fullersburg in 1850. A toll house was erected at the eastern edge of Fullersburg near the Cook County line. At this time over 500 horse and oxen teams passed by each day. Many herds of cattle were also driven to market over the road to Chicago.

The Stagecoach wasn't as glamorous as the movies made them out to be.

Many notable people passed through Fullersburg including Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. Lincoln spoke from a hotel porch in 1858 on his way west to Ottawa. By 1860, Fullersburg had become one of the leading communities of DuPage County. Its buildings included 15 to 20 houses, two hotels, three taverns, a post office, a blacksmith shop, a school, a cemetery, and a grist mill. 

Though never incorporated in its own name, the area is historically important to the development of Hinsdale and Oak Brook, Illinois. 

To save the farmhouse from demolition by encroaching commercial development, the structure was relocated to land owned by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County from its original location in 1980.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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NOTE:
Because the Naperville Road (Ogden Avenue) was the main trail west from Chicago, it was the first road to be covered with wooden planks by the South Western Plank Road Company, and consequently called the Southwestern Plank Road. The road was completed in 1850 and extended from Bull's Head Tavern at Ogden and Madison in Chicago, to Brush Hill (later Fullersburg, Illinois). 

The Southwestern Plank Road was a one-lane road, eight feet wide and constructed of planks three inches thick. A tollgate was located at Joliet and Ogden Avenues and charged the following tolls: 

37¢ - Carriage pulled by two horses.
25¢ - Carriage, cart, or buggy pulled by one horse. 
10¢ - Horse and rider. 
 4¢ - Head of cattle. 
 3¢ - Sheep. 

The plank road was later connected to another plank road at Fullersburg. This was the Oswego Plank Road that reached Naperville.

Interstate Industrial Exposition Building on Michigan Avenue at Adams Street, Chicago, Illinois. (1872-1892)

The Interstate Exposition Building, the city's first convention center, was constructed by William W. Boyington in 1872.

Michigan Avenue looking north from Jackson Street. The Interstate Industrial Exposition Building is on the right, 1891.

The glass and metal building with ornamental domes was based on exposition buildings in London and New York and was designed to house annual displays of industrial manufacturers.

Ground Plan of the Great Industrial Exposition Building Showing Lake Michigan and Michigan Avenue.

The Exposition was opened to the public in September of 1872, and the receipts from the sales of tickets and other sources that year was $175,402. The total expenditures on account of building and running the building were $345,927, leaving a deficit of $170,525 for the first year.

Inside Boyington’s Interstate Industrial Exposition Building.

Interior of the Building, Looking North From a Central Point Under the Dome. (1873)

The promoters of the enterprise were not discouraged and proceeded to improve the building and prepare for an exposition the next year.

In order to make it the utmost value for exhibitors to display their manufactures and devices to the public, they originally adopted a policy of offering free space and power, which was adhered to.

The Exposition became self-sustaining in 1877. It was the only Exposition of the kind in the country that was self-sustaining, with the possible exception of the American Mechanics Institute of New York.

Interstate Industrial Exposition Building. (1873)

It served a variety of other functions, as an Illinois National Guard armory, the first home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the site of national political conventions in 1880 and 1884.

Looking north on Michigan Avenue towards Adams Street, Chicago. (1878)

Looking east on Adams Street from State Street, Chicago (1887). The domed building visible at the end of Adams Street is the Interstate Industrial Exposition Building on Michigan Avenue.

Sheet Music Cover "Grand Exposition March" by Louis Falk

The Interstate Exposition Building was razed in 1892 to build the Art Institute (the World Congress Auxiliary) of the World's Columbian Exposition, which occupied the new building from May 1 to October 31, 1893, after which the Art Institute took possession on November 1, 1893. The Art Institute was officially opened to the public on December 8, 1893.

Are you interested in the Art Institutes Lions' History? They each have a name and were only moved twice since 1893.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Earnest Sirrine of Chicago, Illinois patented first automatic street traffic system in 1910.

Earnest Sirrine of Chicago, Illinois patented (No. 976,939) perhaps the first automatic street traffic system in 1910. 

The device used two separate display arms that rotated on an axis between two fixed positions. The display arms were arranged as a cross with one display continually offset from the other by 90-degrees. In place of red and green lights, Sirrine’s “street traffic system” used the non-illuminated words “stop” and “proceed.”