1. Lake Ellyn
In the late 1800’s many people were visiting Glen Ellyn. Trains were bringing many people for picnics and nature walks. In 1889, local residents Thomas E. Hill and Seth Baker thought of the idea of damming a small river or brook, known as Indian Creek. Their idea was to form a lake in a swampy valley east of Park Boulevard. They thought this lake would make Glen Ellyn even more attractive to visitors.
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2. Mr. Hill
After a lot of planning and work, the result was a lake named “Lake Glen Ellyn.” When they made the lake, it was much larger than it is now. This picture shows a hotel that was built at about the same time. The lake is in front of the hotel in this picture. The hotel was very close to the location of the current Glenbard West football field. They used the name Glen because of small valleys in the area, and they used the name “Ellyn” after Thomas Hill’s wife, who was named Ellen.

3. This is a picture of the Hotel Glen Ellyn that was built in 1893
This is a picture of the Hotel Glen Ellyn that was built in The hotel overlooked Lake Ellyn. It had 100 rooms. This helped make Glen Ellyn a tourist attraction. People could travel by train and visit Glen Ellyn. Then in 1906, lightning hit the hotel, and a fire destroyed it.

4. The popularity of Lake Glen Ellyn led residents to petition to have the
name “Glen Ellyn” for the name of the town. The petition passed
in 1891, so Glen Ellyn become the town’s name.

5. Today Lake Ellyn is a park used by many residents for the 4th of July fireworks, music concerts, sports events, fishing, Memorial Day celebrations, the Cardboard Boat Regatta and ice skating in the winter. Making the lake seems like it was a good idea.

6. This is an example
of a petition.
A petition is a piece of paper that many people sign to prove a point. When people sign it, they are saying that they agree with the statement or point on the petition. In the story of our town, people were signing their names to agree to change the name of our town one last time to Glen Ellyn.
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