The beautiful historic buildings in the central business district, the Robbins Park subdivision and many other neighborhoods in Hinsdale.
That delicious smell when you walk into Kramer Foods.
The crowds that line the streets the morning of July 4, waiting for the parade to begin.
These and so many other things make Hinsdale the wonderful town that it is. We celebrated almost a dozen of them in our summer series, Quintessential Hinsdale.
It is not a coincidence that we chose this topic in 2023, the year the village is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its incorporation. As part of that sesquicentennial celebration, we wanted to highlight some of the places and events that have a rich history in town.
The series closes today with a look at a more recent phenomenon, Friday night football games. (You can enjoy the first one Aug. 25 when Central takes on Naperville Central in the opening game of the season. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.)
The summer series certainly isn’t the only way we’re marking the village’s 150th anniversary. On Page 7 of the paper each week since Jan. 5 we’ve shared historical information about the village. We’ve written about village founder William Robbins, the controversy over how Hinsdale was named, how the railroad shaped the village, early elections and many other topics. We’ve included copy taken directly from early newspaper articles and history books (which sounds a bit different than the language we use today) and used historic pictures and current shots for “then and now” photo pages.
And we’ve shared information about special anniversary events in town, such as the “Hinsdale History — Illuminated” light show set to take place after tonight’s Uniquely Thursdays gathering.
We will continue to devote Page 7 to such topics through the end of the year. If there’s a person, place or event in village history that you’d like to know more about, please let us know. Just send an email to [email protected].
We’ve also been working on a special section celebrating village history that will be published Thursday, Sept. 28, which happens to be our own 17th anniversary. The issue will include articles about village schools, churches, nonprofit agencies, sports teams, historic buildings, politicians and much more. In addition to relying on newspaper articles and books, we are interviewing people who live or work in Hinsdale present day to help put all this history into perspective.
Local businesses and organizations also will have the opportunity to share some of their own history or offer a congratulatory message in special advertisements in this keepsake section.
This section will be delivered to all homes in Hinsdale with the regular paper that week and will be available for sale at our office at 7 W. First St.
A favorite quote of ours is from Philip Graham, the late publisher of the Washington Post.
“Journalism is the first rough draft of history,” he said.
As journalists who provide that first rough draft every week, we are enjoying the opportunity to look back to see how that history has been refined over the years — and sharing those discoveries with you.
