Editing Steger, Illinois (section)

== History ==
The settlement was founded in 1891 by [[Chicago]] real estate interests<ref>{{cite journal |title= Classified advertisement FOR SALE - AT COLUMBIA HEIGHTS|journal=The Chicago Daily Tribune|date=October 15, 1891|pages=19}}</ref> and initially named Columbia Heights in honor of the 1893 [[World's Columbian Exposition]] which the City of Chicago had been preparing to host since 1889.<ref>{{cite book|last=Appelbaum|first=Stanley|title=The Chicago World's Fair of 1893: A Photographic Record|year=1980|publisher=Dover Publications, Inc.|location=New York|isbn=048623990X|pages=[https://archive.org/details/chicagoworldsfai00appe/page/1 1]|url=https://archive.org/details/chicagoworldsfai00appe/page/1}}</ref>

John Valentine Steger built a piano factory there on a parcel of land south of [[Chicago Heights, Illinois|Chicago Heights]] that was sited immediately west of the [[Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad]] tracks and bordered by the tracks, Vincennes Avenue (now [[Illinois Route 1|Chicago Road]]) and 33rd and 34th Streets.<ref>{{cite journal |title= Among Architects and Builders - The Usual Quantity of Projects for Apartments and Flats|journal=The Chicago Daily Tribune|date=December 6, 1891|pages=28}}</ref>  By 1904, the factory covered {{convert|23|acre|ha|abbr=on}} and had a capacity of sixteen thousand pianos per year.<ref>{{cite journal |title= PIANO MAGNATE'S GUESTS AT AN ALL-NIGHT FEAST - Chicago Heights Club Entertains in Honor of John V. Steger's Fiftieth Birthday|journal=The (Chicago) Inter Ocean|date=March 25, 1904|pages=1}}</ref>

Steger was incorporated in 1896 with 324 residents, at which time John Steger agreed to pay $400 toward incorporation costs with the understanding that the town would change its name to Steger, and he subsequently served two terms as the village's board president. He avoided the issues that had plagued [[George Pullman]] in his [[Pullman, Chicago|"model town"]] by encouraging private home ownership and commerce.<ref>{{cite book|last=Stevenson|first=William Wallace|title=Past and Present of Will County|year=1907|publisher=[[S. J. Clarke Publishing Company]]|location=Chicago|pages=236}}</ref>  By 1920, Steger was called the "piano capital of the world",<ref>{{cite book|last=Grossman|first=James R., Ann Durkin Keating and Janice L. Reiff |title=The Encyclopedia of Chicago|year=2004|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|isbn=0226310159|pages=783}}</ref> producing more than a hundred pianos a day. After demand diminished for pianos, the plant closed in 1928.<ref>{{cite journal |title= Steger Residents Will Seek New Source of Steam Supply|journal=The Chicago Heights Star|date=August 10, 1928|pages=1}}</ref>