On March 19, 1996, Downers Grove Park District voters approved the referendum to save Lyman Woods by 12 votes. More than 13,000 ballots were cast. The Park District's own history timeline still calls the preserve "Downers' Last Grove," and it notes that later land purchases by the Park District and the Forest Preserve District grew it, with support from the Pierce Downer Heritage Alliance.
On Sunday, Nov. 8, thirty years later, Park District staff will lead a group off-trail in those same woods to look at what's left of the buildings that once stood there. That tour starts a ten-day run of local-history events, and three of them take place on land or in buildings the public decided to own. The first is the woods saved by referendum. The second is a golf course the Park District bought in 1968, and the third is an 1892 house it bought in 1976.
Sunday, Nov. 8: Off the trail at Lyman Woods
The Park District's "Relics and Ruins" tour runs from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Lyman Woods, 901 31st St. According to the Downers Grove Historical Society's listing, staff will lead guests off-trail to the ruins of past buildings and show artifacts dug up at the preserve over the years. The remnants date from the late 1800s through the 1980s, and the listing asks people to wear hiking shoes.
Registration costs $10. Everyone who attends has to register, the tour is open to ages 6 to 99, and children must come with a registered adult.
That 1980s end date matters, because the preserve was being lived in until fairly recently. The Historical Society has written about the Emmett Flaherty House. A Frank Lloyd Wright apprentice designed it, and it was built in 1966 in the old Butterfield Woods subdivision, inside what is now Lyman Woods. It was torn down in the mid-1990s, around the time of the referendum. The tour listing doesn't name its stops, but the house shows how recently this ground held homes and streets before it went back to being a preserve. In 2003 the Park District built an interpretive center in the preserve's north addition with help from the Forest Preserve District, as part of an ongoing restoration plan.
Wednesday, Nov. 11: The museum stays open late
The Park District bought the 1892 Charles Blodgett House in 1976 and opened it as a museum on January 30, 1977. Today the Downers Grove Museum at 831 Maple Ave. includes the older 1846 Israel Blodgett House, which the Park District finished renovating in 2022. It also has period rooms and a Hall of Fame inside the 1892 house, plus the Montrew Dunham History Center for temporary exhibits.
Regular self-guided hours are Tuesday through Thursday from noon to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. On the second Wednesday of each month the museum stays open from noon to 7 p.m., and this month that's Nov. 11. Weekday visits usually end at 4, so this is the one evening in the series to stop in after work. The museum is closed Nov. 26 to 29 for Thanksgiving.
Thursday, Nov. 12: History on Tap moves the story to Main Street
The night after the museum's late hours, the Historical Society takes local history to downtown bars. This is the 7th annual History on Tap Trivia Pub Crawl. It runs 5 to 10 p.m., and every trivia question is new this year. Shaw Local's My Suburban Life listed the stops when it announced the event on Oct. 16. The crawl runs from 5 to 9 p.m. at:
- Ballydoyle Irish Pub & Restaurant, 5157 Main St.
- The Cellar Door, 5150 Main St., a wine shop and bistro that opened in 2005. Its longtime general manager bought it in 2021.
- Wasabi Restaurant & Bar, 5130 Main St., for ramen and sushi
- Cadence Kitchen & Co., 5101 Mochel Drive
- Orange & Brew Bottle Shop & Tap Room, 1027 Burlington Ave.
From 9 to 10 p.m., everyone heads to Gatto's Italian Restaurant & Bar at 5123 Main St. for the after-party. It includes a buffet, a cash bar and six gift-card drawings, and winners must be there when their names are called.
A ticket gets you a 12-ounce beer, a 4-ounce glass of wine, a soft drink or an appetizer at each of the five stops, plus one bonus ticket to use wherever you like. Tickets cost $40 for Historical Society members and $50 for everyone else. Guests must be 21 or older and bring ID. As of Oct. 28, the Society's ticket page was still selling tickets.
This is the one night of the series that takes place in private businesses rather than public places. Even so, the money goes to the public record. Net proceeds support the Downers Grove Historical Society, an independent volunteer nonprofit incorporated in 1968. It helps with education and programs at the museum the Park District owns.
Friday, Nov. 13: Old cocktails at an old course, and the waitlist has started
"Sip, Sip, Hurray!" is the Park District's historic cocktail tasting, held from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at Belmont Golf Club, 2420 Haddow Ave. Guests learn to make and taste cocktails that were popular from the 1910s through the 1950s, hear about the drinks and their eras, and get snacks. Residents pay $37 and nonresidents pay $56, and guests must be 21 or older.
It's also the hardest event on the calendar to get into. As of Oct. 28, all 26 spots were taken and 7 people were on the waitlist.
The venue is part of the reason to go. The Park District bought the old Downers Grove Golf Course in 1968 for $275,000, and its history page calls the course the site of America's first 18-hole course. The district celebrated the course's 130th anniversary in 2022 and renamed it Belmont Golf Club in 2023. Like Lyman Woods and the Blodgett House, this site is public today because the Park District chose to buy it.
Wednesday, Nov. 18: The man who signed the village into existence
The series ends with the story of how the village began. Marty Acks is a genealogist, a local historian and president of the Historical Society. He'll present the life of Israel Blackburn from 7 to 8:30 p.m. for the DuPage County Genealogical Society, at Wheaton Public Library and on Zoom. The DCGS page includes an RSVP link. According to the Historical Society's listing, the in-person talk is at 225 N. Cross St. in Wheaton and is free.
The Society sums up Blackburn's life this way:
"Israel was born into slavery in 1818 in Kentucky. In 1865, during the Civil War, he performed garrison duty with the 124th U.S. Colored Infantry in Kentucky. Blackburn moved his family north to DuPage County, Illinois, and settled in Downers Grove shortly after the war."
In 1873, Blackburn was one of 38 people who signed the incorporation papers that created the Village of Downers Grove. Acks builds the talk from the large collection of archival records about Blackburn's life. The museum, the woods and the golf course were all public decisions, and before any of them came the decision to become a village. If you miss the Wheaton date, the Society will give the same talk on Feb. 4, 2027, at noon at Fountaindale Public Library in Bolingbrook, with registration opening a few weeks before.
The ten days at a glance
| Date | Event | Where | Cost | Status as of Oct. 28 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun., Nov. 8, 2ā3:30 p.m. | Relics and Ruins tour | Lyman Woods, 901 31st St. | $10 | Registration required |
| Wed., Nov. 11, noonā7 p.m. | Museum extended hours | 831 Maple Ave. | Self-guided | Second-Wednesday hours |
| Thu., Nov. 12, 5ā10 p.m. | History on Tap pub crawl | Five downtown stops, then Gatto's | $40 members, $50 nonmembers | Tickets on sale |
| Fri., Nov. 13, 7ā9:30 p.m. | Sip, Sip, Hurray! | Belmont Golf Club, 2420 Haddow Ave. | $37 residents, $56 nonresidents | Full, 7 on waitlist |
| Wed., Nov. 18, 7ā8:30 p.m. | Israel Blackburn talk | Wheaton Public Library and Zoom | Free per the Society | RSVP through DCGS |
When the history events wrap up, Main Street turns back to construction. At 4917 Main St. in Domain on Main, MilkShake Factory is in the rough construction stage of what will be the chain's first Illinois store, Patch reported Oct. 27. The story gave no opening date. Down the street at 5200 Main St., Ranalli's is preparing its first location in the Chicago suburbs. Patch reported in August that the opening had moved to January because of shifting construction timelines, although the restaurant's own website still says fall 2026. The next date on the downtown calendar is the Village's Main Street Tree Lighting, Friday, Nov. 27, at 4:30 p.m. at the Main Street Train Station.
At Ginny Homes, we love a week when a town shows how it came to look the way it does, and Downers Grove does that well, from a 12-vote referendum to an 1892 house on Maple Avenue. If you're curious about the history of your own street or block, or about what's changing on it now, we're always glad to talk it over. Schedule a Private Consultation and bring your questions.
