Lessons for life. The journeys began here.

The experience began here.

St. Joseph. Remebering the class of 74

http://youtu.be/DL7-CKirWZE

Our community provided us with the finest relationships ever to be assembled.
HERITAGE IS OUR GREATEST ASSET, IT PROVIDES US WITH FINE MEMORIES. 
The question is not 'Can you make a difference?'
You already do make a difference.
It's just a matter of what kind of difference you want to make.
Reconnect with your community.

Proviso West HS - Class of 74 http://www.facebook.com/groups/23670531972/
Saint Joseph-IHM Alumni Network,http://stjoeshsalumni.org/

ST. JOSEPH - IHM ALUMNI NETWORK

Recent news, fact's, and statistics.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westchester,_Illinois

facts about Westchester, Illinois
http://www.trueknowledge.com/q/facts_about__westchester_il

Westchester Suburban Life Newspaper.
http://www.mysuburbanlife.com/westchester

Village of Westchester Community News.
http://www.westchester-il.org/news.html
What would you like to know

Video's about Westchester IL

http://www.encyclopedia.com/video/9s5ah5LvJmY-westchester-illinois.aspx

REALITY RESCUES WESTCHESTER’S GOLDEN DREAM

From the

Chicago Sunday Tribune

JANUARY 23, 1949

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REALITY RESCUES WESTCHESTER’S GOLDEN DREAM

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(Continued from page 1)

George F. Nixon, realtor and head of the syndicate which spawned the infant community as a satellite of the mighty Insull empire, emphasized the trend toward individual home ownership and easy mortgage payments as being chief reasons for the recent rapid growth.

Buy Village For 5 Million

Nixon is engaged in a five year building program in Westchester which will total 1,000 units upon completion.

Nixon’s group purchased Westchester in 1925 for five million dollars.  Planning experts were hired to lay out the community and building plans totaling more than 100 million dollars plus civic improvements to run into millions more were announced.

The proposed village lay like a piece of pie in the angle of prairie from Chicago by the Aurora & Elgin running to Wheaton and the Burlington running beyond LaGrange.

To this veld the Insull interests which had recently added the Aurora & Elgin to its empire proposed to bring an influx of city dwellers thru the means of improved transportation.

“Income Homes” Early Goal

It was announced that certain Aurora &Elgin service would be discontinued to be supplanted by “L” service.  The “L” would be brought to Westchester, first thru an extension to Roosevelt rd.

“I was taken by complete surprise,” Nixon recalled recently, “when the planning experts said that the [public wanted to buy sites for apartments instead of single family residences, ‘income homes’ they wanted, for it was unthinkable in those days to put money into something which brought so return.

“Nonetheless we set aside areas for single family residences, erected a model home in a downtown department store, and ran daily full page newspaper advertisements.  We sold 200 apartment or business sites for every single family residence lot and those we did sell barely covered the cost of the advertising.”

15,000 Saplings Planted

Well over half of the community was allocated to apartment or business use and less than 40 per cent to single family residences.  The restrictions were made binding by deed clauses which ran until 1970.

The planners went ahead and laid out the community.  Streets and sidewalks were paved, sewers and streetlights installed, and 15,000 elm saplings planted to insure that Westchester would be an oasis on the fringe of a mighty metropolis.  The “L” was extended and ran 180 trains daily between Westchester and the loop.  Two schools were erected and the community named one after Nixon.

Construction totaled 121 single family dwellings, 21 two-flats, and three three-flats.

Then – The Crash

But the remaining property owners couldn’t be bothered to build.  The returns were too small and the risks too great.  Financing was done mostly by five year first mortgages and three year second mortgages.

“Practically every one knew at least one person who had lost property under that system,” Nixon said.  “Fifteen, 20 and 25 year mortgages with payments like rent were unheard of in those days.”

Then the bubble burst.

Building halted.  So did tax special assessment, and mortgage payments.  The delinquencies ran into millions.  Then came foreclosures and Westchester began to wither.

Only the elm trees continued to grow.

The dream appeared to be a mirage.

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Last Modified:  03/25/2006

History of Area Cemeteries. Remembering loved ones.

QUEEN OF HEAVEN CEMETERY1400 South Wolf Road
Hillside
(708) 449-8300
Catholic, Est. 1947

The mausoleum viewed from across the street, Wolf and Roosevelt Roads. 
The page is being revised.  Sorry for the inconvenience.
At Queen of Heaven we find the plots of such sterling citizens as Mob boss, Sam Battaglia (1908-1973), a teddy bear compared to his predecessor, Giancana.
The mausoleum's central tower.  Photograph by Jim Arbuthnot
The gothic style central tower of the community mausoleum. Photograph from from Graveyards of ChicagoThis section temporarily unavailable.  Sorry for the inconvenience.
Gallery:

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Sources were used in the compilation of this entry include but are not limited to:

• Graveyards of Chicago by Matt Hucke and Ursula Bielski -- a book which describes many of the Chicago area cemeteries.
  
  
  
  MOUNT CARMEL CEMETERY1400 South Wolf Road
  Hillside
  (708) 449-8300
  Catholic, Est. 1901
  Located in the western suburb of Hillside, this predominantly Italian cemetery contains a most interesting set of personalities to be found in the Chicagoland.
  

  This section temporarily unavailable.

  Along the south edge of the Mount Carmel on Roosevelt Road sits this monument to Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini -- "First Citizen Saint of the United States Patron Saint of Immigrants." "Mother Cabrini was not a humanitarian, she was a heroic lover of God.  In her missions of charity, in her achievement of the impossible, it was not genius.  Her secret was divine love.  This is the wonderful story of a romance that is gripping and striking.  It is the story of a woman who lived among us, who saw the things which we see.  A woman in whose soul divine love was consumed the last remnant of self, who came to love only God.  And who saw God in every poor man, woman and child.  Her life was filled with difficulties.  Many were her disappointments.  Most of the time she had tasks which were far from congenial .  At times she was misunderstood even by good people.  She wavered not.  She was working for God. "She loved us.  She was our benefactor.  She went begging in our sheets.  She rode out streetcars.  Through alleys she went in search of little hungry children who were homeless and friendless.  It seems to me that God through our saint is telling that if we only love Him with all our souls, in the very conditions of our lives, here in this great modern city, we shall be holy and pleasing to Him.  Our Saint issues a challenge to each of us.  Our works in life may be modest, our achievements in the eyes of men insignificant.  But we dare hope to be great in the sight of God, and the little things become big things, and the trials can be blessings, and no matter how gloomy the world about us may be, we can smile the serene smile of our saint wonderful as were her works in life, more wonderful are and ever will be her works after death." His Imminence Samuel Cardinal Stritch

  
  
  
  OAK RIDGE CEMETERY
  4301 West Roosevelt Road
  Hillside, Illinois
  (708) 344-5600
  "The Abbey" Mausoleum at Oak Ridge.  This photograph is from the 1920s.  The original photograph hangs in the Oak Ridge office.
  There are several famous people who rest at the Oakridge Cemetery:
  

  Harold Lincoln Gray (1894-1968), a local suburban boy who created Li'l Orphan Annie, established his heroine on the pages of the Chicago Tribune.
  Musician Chester A. "Howlin' Wolf" Burnett  (1910-1976), rests here after nearly 70 years of hard living.  Originally from Mississippi, Howlin’ Wolf's began his musical experience by singing in church on Sundays.  In his eighteenth year is father presented Chester with a guitar.  Soon, Chester met Charley Patton, a Delta Blues pioneer.  Under his tutelage, Chester learned Patton's style and methods.
  For several years Chester perfected his skills at local weekly fish fries while spending his days farming with his family.   Chester met another Delta Blues performer, Sonny Boy Williamson, after moving to Arkansas.  Williamson taught him the harmonica.  Soon Chester quit farming and went on the road.  Chester wandering and  four years in the service brought him back to farming but his heart wasn't in it.  He formed his own band and went back on the road.
  Chester experienced good success in Mississippi and Arkansas.  At 38 he landed a radio spot in West Memphis and had his big breakthrough.  His fame grew and, in 1950, led to a recording contract with Chicago's Chess Records for his versions of "How Many More Years" and "Moanin' at Midnight."  With record sales  of over 60,000, RPM began competing with Chess for Wolf's recordings. Chess won. And Chess, Chester, and the Chicago Blues scene became entwined.

  The Mason's Rest monument at Oak Ridge
  

  At 6 feet 6 inches and nearly 300 pounds, with an earth-shaking voice punctuated by gut-wrenching moans and wails, Chester Burnett had become a performer known for scaring audiences out of their wits. In the years since his debut, he has been credited by hundreds of musicians, representing countless countries and musical styles, as a major influence on their work.
  Chester continued his popular performances throughout his later years in spite of a kidney problem, receiving dialysis before beginning his engagements. He died in Chicago, the town that loved him well, on January 10, 1976.

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  Sources were used in the compilation of this entry include but are not limited to:
  
  • Graveyards of Chicago by Matt Hucke and Ursula Bielski -- a book which describes all the Chicago area cemeteries.

Reverend John Vincent Dolciamore, S. T. L., J. C. L.

Pastor, Divine Providence, January 1, 1976 to 1987

Father was born in Chicago on April 26, 1926, the youngest of the seven children of Luigi and Cecelia DePalo Dolciamore After graduation from Saint Genevieve grammar school on the northwest side, he went on for the customary five years at Quigley Preparatory Seminary followed by seven years at the major seminary, Saint Mary of the Lake, in Mundelein.
His work in the college at Saint Mary earned him a B. A. in Philosophy, an M. A. in English, and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.). He was ordained a priest by Samuel Cardinal Stritch on May 1, 1952.
His first assignment to Saint Charles Borromeo Parish was abbreviated when he was chosen to go to Rome in 1954 for graduate studies. In 1956 the Gregorian University in Rome granted him a Licentiate in Canon Law (J. C. L.).
The thrill of Rome and his academic accomplishment were temporarily paled by the excitement of the trip home. Father was a passenger aboard the ill fated Andrea Doria, which collided with another ship in a heavy fog and sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Fortunately he was unscathed.
Upon his return, he was assigned full time to the Metropolitan Tribunal of the Archdiocese with residence in the rectory of Holy Name Cathedral. He was named Judge of the Tribunal in 1963, Vice Officialis in 1967, and Officialis or Chief Judge in 1972.
These were busy years involving important interpretations of the Canon Law and jurisprudence affecting marriage. Father has written numerous articles, and has frequently been invited to address conventions, regionally and nationally, on these matters of vital concern to so many. The Canon Law Society of America asked him to edit a book on Matrimonial Jurisprudence in the United States. The book which covered a four year span, was the first of its kind, and it continues to be published, following the original format. He reorganized the Chicago Tribunal to accommodate the changes in procedural and substantive law with a resultant increase in decisions sought and rendered. In 1972, only 110 final decisions in marital matters were handed down. Today the number exceeds 1,500 annually. His experience and expertise in these matters are widely recognized. He has been a Consultor on the Board of Governance of the Canon Law Society of America. He is currently a consultant to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in canonical matters. On several occasions he has been called to Rome to discuss matrimonial procedures.
Important as these activities are, they and his place of residence were insulating Father from pastoral experience. With no wish to sacrifice his judicial and legislative talents, a series of residence and environmental relocations were decided upon as an effective broadening vehicle. From June, 1966 to April, 1969, he resided at Saint Joseph Carondolet Home for Children on the south side and participated in its operation. From April, 1969 to February, 1972, he resided at Saint John of the Cross Parish in Western Springs where he experienced the operation of a typical suburban parish. From February of 1972 to the end of 1975, he resided at the Mission of Our Lady of Mercy on West Jackson Boulevard, where he witnessed the problems of troubled young men, and helped them in their resolution.
On June 15, 1978, Father was appointed to the Board of Consultors of the Archdiocese of Chicago and in 1981 was reappointed for a second term. This group of twelve meets monthly with the Archbishop to advise him on diocesan matters.
At their national convention held in Chicago in October, 1981, the Canon Law Society of American presented Father Dolciamore with their highest award, the ROLE OF LAW AWARD. The award was presented in recognition of his knowledge of the law of the church and its application in a pastoral manner, particularly in the area of marriage validity.

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The primary source of this information are:
Divine Providence Parish publications and directories, 1981, 1991 and 1996