When the private Lincoln Highway Association laid out the nation’s first improved coast-to-coast highway, its route from Plainfield to Aurora zigzagged through northeastern Kendall County’s Oswego Township on existing country roads.
When plans to pave the highway in the 1920s were being made, Naperville made a strong case to run the highway through their town, bypassing Kendall County entirely.
Starting at noon this coming Saturday, Feb. 22, Oswego’s Little White School Museum, 72 Polk Street, Oswego, will host Michael Lambert, who will inform and entertain guests as he relates the stories behind the “Good Roads Movement;” the Tice Act; and the role of agriculture and the military in the promotion and final success of routing of the Lincoln Highway—now U.S. Route 30—through northeastern Kendall County. Ultimately the road’s more direct route through Kendall County was assured through and unlikely, but successful collaboration between Joliet officials, Plainfield businessmen, and Kendall and Will County farmers.
The presentation will also offer insight into the motives and goals of the original promoters of the Lincoln Highway; the early, local advocates for a paved, coast-to-coast highway; the role of convicts in the road’s construction; and the significance of Halloween in 1913 behind the ultimate success of the Lincoln Highway.
Program admission is $5, with proceeds earmarked for maintaining the museum’s collection of priceless local artifacts, photos, and documents. To register in advance (walk-ins the day of the program are welcome), or for more information, call the park district at 630-554-1010 or visit the museum’s registration page, bit.ly/LWSMPrograms.
For more information about the museum, call them at 630-554-2999, email info@littlewhite
schoolmuseum.org, or visit their website, www.littlewhiteschoolmuseum.org.
—Little White School Museum