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player ready...Sugar Grove has remained a largely rural crossroads since the first European settlers arrived 160 years ago.
On May 10, 1834, five pioneers stopped in what today is Sugar Grove. It wasn’t entirely a daring feat; a road already snaked through the site, connecting Chicago to Dixon.
It would be fully a year before the five men were joined by their families, but they didn’t overlook all the niceties.
On July 4, they held the first Independence Day celebration in Kane County by sharing a bottle of whiskey one of them had brought from Oswego, according to Helen Ogle, a member of Sugar Grove’s historical society.
The area was known as Sin-Qua-Sip to the Native Americans who lived there when Illinois was admitted to the Union in 1818.
“Sugar Grove” is an English translation of an American Indian name that pays homage to the abundance of sugar maple trees that still grow in the Bliss Woods area.
The Bliss Woods Forest Preserve is on the site of a former private dance hall. And until the 1920s a trolley line connecting Plainfield, Aurora, Belvedere and Rockford ran through the woods. The old tracks are covered with asphalt now and serve as the Virgil Gilman Trail, said Brad Sauer, of the forest preserve.
Like the ancient sugar maples, Ogle’s stately two-story wood frame home on Prairie Road has witnessed much of the village’s history.
Ogle, who was born in Sugar Grove some 60 odd years ago, still lives today in the house that was built for her grandparents when they married 100 years ago.
Ogle’s great-grandparents moved into the community in 1868. Her family still retains a portion of the original farm, though they no longer work it themselves.
“The changes are coming faster, much faster than in the past,” Ogle observes anxiously. “I don’t like it. I liked the kind of village we had. I like to look off in the horizon in the morning and see the sunrise.”
She said her view is being obliterated by new homes and she fears the increased population density is causing increased crime; she cited a recent spate of break-ins.
Police chief Jim Quist said violent crime in the town is rare, and most other crime is of the teenage prank variety, and guns are not involved.
But a Sugar Grove teen was recently arrested for his alleged involvement in a drive-by shooting in nearby Aurora. Just this fall, Quist has investigated several burglaries, including one where thieves spirited away $15,000 of technical equipment from a local factory.
Quist maintains that the police force of three full-time officers and seven to eight part-timers sufficiently protects the village; he says he cannot recall a murder since the 1940s or 1950s, nor any shootings.
“It’s a good community to be a police officer in,” Quist said.
With a population estimated at 2,500, the village is a virtual metropolis today compared with 1850, when its first town meeting was held. At that time, the census reported that 136 families and 720 people lived in the township. Main roads, many named for local families, were in place by 1860.
Susan Badway, sales manager for Chelsea Meadows, one of the residential developments being constructed in the village, said homes sell easily in Sugar Grove because of its location and the highly ranked Kaneland and West Aurora schools.
According to statewide test scores released in November, 3rd-, 6th- and 8th-grade students at Kaneland outperformed state averages in every area. West Aurora students performed above state averages in math at all ages. In reading, writing, science and social studies West Aurora students were slightly above or slightly below state averages.
“We like the name Sugar Grove,” said Badway. “It sounds so quaint. `Aurora’ would be hard to say 100 times a day to people. Sugar Grove is such a sweet name.” She added the three- and four-bedroom homes at Chelsea Meadows are in the $134,900 to $168,900 range.
Mallard Point, another residential development in town, is planned for 221 homes. Located on Prairie Road east of Illinois Highway 47, it will feature mostly two-story homes ranging from $149,900 to $181,900, said Dennis Usalis, executive director of sales.
The six floor plans range from 1,600 to almost 2,700 square feet with three or four bedrooms.
Other subdivisions under constuction in Sugar Grove include Blackwalnut Trail, planned for 164 homes; Stratford Woods, 40 homes; and Windstone, 214 homes.
For relative newcomer Mari Johnson, the encroaching development is welcome, though she hopes her adopted community retains its rural personality.
Johnson, who has lived in Sugar Grove for only six years, said she would like to see fine dining restaurant in town, but, in the meantime, she would be content with a McDonald’s.
“We don’t have the traffic headaches. I’d like to see some stores, fast-food restaurants,” Johnson said. “We do have a flower shop, but that’s about it. Most of the stuff is service-type industry-nothing where you can buy something and take it home with you.”
While the village is only a short drive from the plentiful groceries and strip malls of Aurora, Johnson and other residents would appreciate having similar amenities in their own village.
Johnson said she and her husband left comparatively urban Naperville in search of a bigger house and yard in a more affordable community. “We moved out here right before it became the popular place to move,” she said.
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Indeed, Sugar Grove appears on the brink of a new development boom as village elders are laying the groundwork for its new economic development committee, which is exploring ways to lure businesses to the fast-growing area.
Village President Timothy Sury said that the community’s location off Interstate Highway 88 will be a key selling point.
The group is working with an East Coast consultant to restore a village-center look to downtown Sugar Grove, where right now Dennis Moutray’s Amoco Station at Cross Street and Illinois 47 is one of the most notable landmarks.
The Old Hotel, really a large, unremarkable white clapboard house, stands vacant now on Main Street, but will be a focus of the village center plan. It has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Preservation Society has raised $85,000 of the necessary $500,000 to restore its original porches and interior, said Barbara Hollmier.
The hotel served as a dormitory for students of the Sugar Grove Industrial and Normal School, founded in 1876. Once renovated, it will house a local history museum on its second floor and the guest rooms on the ground floor will become stores.
A Metra station will be built in the village sometime in the next 15 years and likely will spur an influx of new residents and businesses, Sury believes.
“Of all the communities out there, (Sugar Grove) is one that seems to double in population every time I drive by it,” said Metra spokesman Chris Knapton. “We do a lot of license plate checks at the Aurora station, and we find a lot of people driving into Aurora from central Kane County to catch the train.”
Bob Rieser, manager of the Aurora Municipal Airport, which lists Sugar Grove as its address, says the Metra station could bring increased business for the general aviation airport that is used mostly by private and corporate jets.
He also fears that the on-going project to expand the airport from 1,000 to 1,300 acres could cause clashes with the growing community as residences and the airport come closer together.
Residents right now are most concerned about a West Chicago asphalt plant owner who is seeking village approval to open up a plant in Sugar Grove. A group of residents has formed to protest the plan; they fear detriment to their health and home values.
Johnson said she is not involved in the group because she is a reporter for a local paper but admits she is not pleased about the proposal. “We’re really in fear of this asphalt plant that’s threatening to locate right on top of us. I wouldn’t hesitate to sell my house and move away. You feel an attachment to a place, but not to the point that I’d try to stick it out if something like that located here.”
One large institutional neighbor of Sugar Grove has had no problems peacefully coexisting. Waubonsee Community College has even gone so far as to shift a building 28 degrees to save five oak trees.
John Swalec, president of Waubonsee Community College said his school, which was built in 1966 on the 284-acre grounds of a former horse farm that forms Sugar Grove’s northern boundary, said the college and village enjoy a positive symbiotic relationship.
“Our relationship with Sugar Grove has been not only longstanding but close. We merge in many ways, not only because of proximity but because our location is such that we don’t seem to intrude on each other, but instead complement each other,” he said.
He said Sugar Grove residents make use of the college’s fitness center, nature trails, learning resource center and tennis courts.
While Waubonsee has about 7,000 credit-earning students each semester, he said the college serves about 45,000 people from Sugar Grove and surrounding communities each year in credit, non-credit, high school summer school classes and arts and crafts and other programs.
Since 1988, the college has been an innovator in the employ of two-way interactive television for study purposes, serving as a proving ground for that technology which will be implemented at other colleges and universities around the state.
Waubonsee is linked with Elgin and McHenry Community Colleges and Aurora University. Waubonsee, noted for its program for the hearing impaired, also is known for its training program for sign language interpreters. It shares that course with McHenry via interactive learning television.