The enthusiasm many Chicago elites had for golfing helped launch golf clubs and suburban development in the last decades of the nineteenth century. The city's first club, the Chicago Golf Club, was created in 1893 by members of the Chicago Club in what is now Downers Grove. For South Side elites, however, sites served by the Illinois Central Railroad were much more convenient. In 1898, a group of these investor-enthusiasts negotiated with the Illinois Central to add a new stop on its suburban line. This booklet distributed by the Illinois Central shows the close connections between the railroad and the golf clubs and the communities that grew up nearby.

Creator: Illinois Central Railroad Co.
Source: Chicago Historical Society (ICHi-38232)