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===Uptown=== [[File:Blue Island House.JPG|thumb|left|Blue Island House]] [[File:Blue Island Opera House.JPG|thumb|left|Blue Island Opera House]] Norman Rexford came to Chicago from [[Charlotte, Vermont]] in 1835 and in 1836 became the first permanent settler of Blue Island when he established the Blue Island House near the intersection of present-day Western Avenue and Gregory Street just north of the Western Avenue bridge.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=VtwSAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22BLUE+ISLAND+HOUSE%22&pg=PA331 Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, and Daniel David Healy. ''History of Cook County, Illinois: Being a General Survey of Cook County History, Including a Condensed History of Chicago and Special Account of Districts Outside the City Limits; from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time''], published by the Goodspeed Historical Association, 1909. Item notes: v. 2. Original from Harvard University</ref> Before Rexford built the Blue Island House he had constructed a four-room log cabin in the wilderness at the north end of the Blue Island ridge that he intended as a tavern for wayfarers, but after a year realized that the place was not likely to be profitable for him and began to look for another site where he might have more success. Although farther from [[Fort Dearborn]] and the settlement at [[Chicago]] (which by that time was incorporated and had a population of several thousand persons) by about {{convert|3|mi|0}}, the new inn was better situated because it was located on the Wabash Road (in Blue Island now Western Avenue), which was then a part of the Vincennes trail that went from Chicago to [[Vincennes, Indiana]]. It was considerably larger and more refined than Rexford's previous venture, being a two-and-a half-story white frame building that also had various outbuildings to accommodate the needs of his guests. Because it was a day's journey from Chicago, within a few years the inn became the nucleus for a group of businesses that catered to the soldiers, cattlemen (with their herds) and other travelers who arrived by [[stagecoach]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Oswald |first1=Joseph C. |author2=The Ridge Historical Society |title=Images of America β Chicago's Beverly Hills/Morgan Park neighborhood |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |year=2003 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l27bnUowdpYC&q=stagecoach+blue+island&pg=PA9 |access-date=2009-02-14 |isbn=978-0-7385-3153-3}}</ref> or otherwise frequented the Vincennes trail. Events hosted by the inn frequently lasted until the small hours of the morning, requiring an overnight stay before guests returned the next morning to their homes and places of business in Chicago and the hinterland.<ref>{{cite news | title=How Chicago's suburbs were platted and named β No. 3 Southern District| newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune| volume=28|date=March 4, 1900| pages=37}}</ref> Through the 1970s, Blue Island's [[central business district]] ("uptown" to the locals) was regarded as an important regional commercial center, with stores such as [[F. W. Woolworth Company|Woolworth's]], Kline's, [[Sears, Roebuck and Company|Sears]], [[Montgomery Ward]], [[Spiegel (catalog)|Spiegel]] and [[Steak 'n Shake]].<ref>{{cite web |author1=Curt Teich & Co. |author2=North Suburban Library System |title=Western Ave., Blue Island, Ill. |publisher=Aero Distributing Co., Chicago, IL |year=1921 |url=http://www.digitalpast.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/lakecoun004&CISOPTR=5049&REC=8|access-date=2009-02-17}}</ref> Today, downtown Blue Island is better known for its antique stores, art galleries, ethnic delicatessens and fine dining. Much of this shift in business activity has been brought on by "[[big-box store|big box]]" development outside of town that space constraints make it impossible for uptown to accommodate. However, several local businesses have served the area for generations: DeMar's Restaurant, for example, opened its doors in 1950; Jebens Hardware was established in 1876; and Krueger Funeral Home was founded in 1858. In the 21st century, the city and a dedicated group of volunteers, working with the Metropolitan Planning Council of Chicago<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.metroplanning.org/ |title=Metropolitan Planning Council β Home |publisher=Metropolitan Planning Council}}</ref> and the [[Center for Neighborhood Technology]] devised the ''Blue Island Plan for Economic Development'', which addresses not only the commercial expansion of the historic uptown business district, but also the continued improvement of the housing stock and industrial base.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cnt.org/repository/BlueIslandExecSummary.pdf |title=Blue Island Plan for Economic Development |publisher=cnt.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511152209/http://www.cnt.org/repository/BlueIslandExecSummary.pdf |archive-date=2008-05-11 }}</ref> The Blue Island Opera House<ref>[http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/3549.html The Encyclopedia of Chicago β Blue Island Opera House, 1908]</ref> was built by Blue Island's first mayor John L. Zacharias to replace the Robinson Block, which was destroyed by the Great Blue Island Fire of that year. The opera house was host to [[vaudeville]] and [[repertory|repertoire]] shows until 1913, when it became the Grand Theater and a venue for [[film|motion pictures]]. In later years the building was home to the Blue Island ''Sun-Standard'' newspaper and Kline's Department Store. Although the auditorium has been remodeled out of existence, the building, with its award-winning exterior restoration, today provides both commercial and office space to the historic "uptown" district. The building has been designated as a landmark<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blueisland.org/historic/landmark-tour/41-opera/ |title=Blue Island Opera House |author=jason |publisher=City of Blue Island|date=2009-10-24 }}</ref> by the Blue Island Historic Preservation Commission<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blueisland.org/historic/ |title=Historic Landmark & District Requirements |author=jodi |publisher=City of Blue Island|date=2008-05-15 }}</ref> It was designed by the American/Canadian architect Hugh Griffith Jones, who also designed Blue Island's first Greenwood School (demolished) and a commercial building with a flat above (c. 1895, extant, also now a city landmark) for Albert and Emma Schmidt at 312 (now 13022) Western Avenue. The architect's drawings for the opera house were used by Jones in the package he prepared to justify his successful application for membership in the [[Royal Architectural Institute of Canada]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org/node/1541/ |title=Hugh Griffith Jones|publisher=Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada 1850β1950}}</ref> [[Moraine Valley Community College]] operates a satellite facility uptown.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.morainevalley.edu/ |title=Homepage |publisher=Moraine Valley Community College}}</ref>
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