Ogden Avenue has a rich history

Among famous roads, Ogden Avenue may lack the glitz of Fifth Avenue, the prominence of Downing Street or the notoriety of Abbey Road, but in the western suburbs of Chicago, Ogden has a long, rich history.

Travel along its 37 miles of asphalt and you'll notice mom-and-pop businesses, strip malls, restaurants, churches, offices, houses, industry, medical facilities, service shops and auto dealers exhibiting a mixed-bag of signage.

Ogden Avenue is an arterial street starting in Chicago at the river north of Chicago Avenue, and continuing southwest through Douglas Park and Cermak Woods and winding through the western suburbs of Brookfield, Hinsdale, Downers Grove, Lisle and Naperville. In Aurora, at its intersection with Farnsworth Avenue, the road's name changes to Oswego, however its Route 34 designation continues.

Long before Ogden Avenue became the backbone of commercial development, it was an Indian trail referred to as the Ottawa Trail frequented by the Potawatomis who lived on land that is now part of the Morton Arboretum.

Lisle's first two permanent settlers, brothers Luther and James Hatch, came to Lisle in 1832. With settlement came a demand for roads and trails were logical places for the first ones. When the West opened after the Black Hawk War, a successful entrepreneur, Mark Beaubien, moved from Chicago in 1840 to Lisle at an area near present-day Ogden Avenue and Plank Road. He chose this location because it was a day's ride from the city. Naperville was a stop on the Galena-Chicago stagecoach line.

Upon the rise of land, Beaubien created a small family burial plot that remains today. Repeating a business he had in the city, he built Beaubien Tavern. His entertaining fiddling was legendary among fur-traders, settlers and Indians.

Dirt roads that were fine for riding horses turned into a nightmare in rainy weather when horse-drawn buggies and stagecoaches languished in mud.

The idea of a road built of wooden planks began in Russia and came through Canada to the United States in 1848.

First, two lines of wood stringers were embedded on solid ground eight feet apart. Across this base, 3-inch thick planks formed the roadway. Newspapers of the day praised plank roads and questioned how the fledgling railroads could do better.

Southwest Plank Road (Ogden Avenue) followed the Ottawa Trail and was a principle road out of Chicago. An ad in the DuPage County Recorder in 1850 read: "Planks wanted: We will take any amount of white or burr oak plank from those invested in us, if delivered at Naperville, or any place on the Plank Road, before the first day of April. The planks should be 8 feet long, 3 inches thick and no more than 13 inches wide; 500,000 feet of plank wanted for stock in the company."

For the privilege of using plank roads, tolls were 371/2 cents for a four-horse vehicle; 25 cents for a single team of horses; 121/2 cents for a horse and rider; 4 cents for each head of cattle; 3 cents per hog or sheep.

The Southwest Plank Road was completed in 1851 at an estimated cost of $2,000 per mile. Toll gates were set at five-mile intervals.

Because Beaubien operated a ferry licensed for $50 by Cook County, a toll booth was set up at Beaubien Tavern to collect fees. There, the road split to one following into Naperville roughly where Plank Road is today and the other went north and west toward Warrenville and St. Charles. Another toll booth was located near where Wannemakers is in Downers Grove, according to Lisle Heritage Society member Joe Bennett.

"Financially, the first plank roads out of Chicago proved a great and immediate success," wrote Milo M. Quaife in his book "Chicago's Highways Old and New" dated 1923. "Wagons of grain and droves of stock passed on way to the Chicago market, and returned West with supplies for pioneers."

Within a few years, the road deteriorated from the heavy loads and decay. Even ditches on each side of the road could not hold the water at bay. The hardwood planks that warped in the sun gave a bumpy ride and chuckholes. The planks were gone by 1874, Bennett said.

According to Chicago Historical Society records, Ogden Avenue that followed the same route was part of a citywide highway system suggested in the Burnham Plan of 1909. The road was named to honor the first mayor of Chicago, William Butler Ogden. Ogden road horseback to raise money from farmers to fund the city's first rail line. After his one-year term as mayor, he went on to design the first swing bridge over the Chicago River and donated the land for Rush Medical Center.

Today, at the Museums of Lisle Station Park, Beaubien Tavern still welcomes visitors. On the east side of the building are planks similar to those used for Plank Road. The museums also highlight Lisle's rich railroad history that proved more reliable than a plank road.

Ogden Avenue remains an important business artery and gateway into the community that generates more than 30,000 trips through Lisle each day. For the past year, both Lisle and Naperville have been developing plans for their part of the corridor.

The upcoming public workshop of the Lisle Ogden Avenue Corridor Plan Steering Committee is 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28 at the Lisle Police Station, 5040 Lincoln Ave.

Because the intent is long-term recommendations for corridor improvements, no one should suggest the use of wood planks. That mistake is history.

• Joan Broz writes about Lisle. E-mail her at jgbroz@yahoo.com.

If you goWhat: Public workshop of the Lisle Ogden Avenue Corridor Plan Steering CommitteeWhen: 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28Where: Lisle Police Station, 5040 Lincoln Ave.Cost: FreeInfo: villageoflisle.org