Village of Lombard history

John Fisher came to Lombard in 1874 and built a carriage and blacksmith’s shop at 19 West St Charles Road.

According to C. W. Richmond’s 1876 DuPage County History, the earliest settler on the land of the town proper was Luther Morton, who built a cabin near the present rail depot, the heart of present day Lombard.

In 1877 Doctor Charles Wilmot Oleson came to Lombard to serve for many years as the town’s first doctor.

In 1878 twenty-four year old William Hammerschmidt came from Naperville and bought land to develop a clay pit.

Butter and cheese were made in the home until another early Lombard businessman arrived in 1879 and built a cheese factory on the south side of Lake Street, at the western edge of town.

Telephone service in Lombard began in 1882.

In addition, they offer many public programs to celebrate the history of Lombard.For more information, contact the Lombard Historical Museum by email or by calling (630) 629-1885.

In 1886 the town “saw the light” in the form of gas street lamps.

The first train arrived August 1, 1887.

By 1890 he had saved enough to buy the old John Sheahan farm southwest of town where he operated a dairy farm, bottling and selling the milk in Lombard and surrounding towns.

Lombard attorney Ellen Martin was the first woman to vote in Illinois—way back in 1891! Ms.

Begun in 1902, the railway, variously known as the Chicago Aurora and Elgin, the “Roarin’ Elgin,” or “the Third Rail,” sped past the back yards of the town’s residents at a decent clip, lights flashing and bells ringing warning stragglers to clear the track.

On October 19, 1903, Lombard was reincorporated, now as a village.

Diagonally from First Congregational Church, a Methodist Church organized in 1909, and a building subsequently erected.

Colonel Plum, a telegrapher during the Civil War, became enamored with lilacs while touring Europe with his wife Helen in the 1910s.

Other recent changes include the closing of Lincoln School, built in 1916 near the site of the old brick Lombard School, and the still older frame school house.

In 1927, Colonel William R. Plum bequeathed his home and adjacent lilac gardens to the town as a park and library site.

In 1931, when the Depression was in full swing, both Lombard banks were forced to close, and several emergency measures were necessary to sustain the town.

Green Valley School, closed during the Depression because of declining enrollment, was re-opened in 1947.

Lombard adopted the city manager plan in the spring of 1955.

The Lombard Historical Society (LHS) was launched in April of 1970 with 175 charter members.

After nine months of work by the LHS and LHC team, LHS President, Patricia Wallace, and LHC Chairman, Otis Butler, joined Village President Howell Holloman to cut the ribbon and open the Victorian Cottage Museum in Oct 1972.

Allen Mertz donated his historic house to the LHS in 1996.

At an August 1999 Dedication Day, LHC Chair Patricia Poskocil, LHS President Gary Bird, Village President Mueller and Museum Director Joel Van Haaften opened Sheldon Peck Homestead as a pioneer museum.

In 2016 the Lombard Historical Commission changed their name to the Lombard Historic Preservation Commission.