Local historian Margery Blair Perkins (1907-1981) provides a detailed narrative charting the growth and development of the North Shore city of Evanston, Illinois, a place boasting a rich and multi-layered history. Perkins brings the citys past to life through stories of its residents, architecture, and growth over the years. She charts the development of the city from its earliest days when it was known as the settlement of Grosse Pointe and later Ridgeville to its modern manifestation as a bustling city just outside of Chicago. Within a larger historical narrative, Perkins provides biographies of noted residents as she documents the evolution of the citys organizations, cultural life and institutions, such as Northwestern University.

Enjoy a trip through historic Evanston. See how Davis Street and Sherman and Orrington Avenues appeared around the beginning of the 20th century. Learn how Fountain Square has evolved and how the Merrick Rose Garden is connected. See Northwestern University as it was founded, along with early Evanston's lakefront, city hall, library, and post office. Many of the buildings shown in this book are still standing, while others have been demolished. In some postcard views the stately elm trees of later decades are seen as saplings. The Library Plaza Hotel, North Shore Hotel, and Georgian Hotel are here as well, along with the historic schools, churches, train depots, and, of course, Grosse Point Lighthouse, which all helped shape the city in its formative years.

Excerpt from A Classic Town: The Story of Evanston Evanston is now the most popular as well as the most populous suburb of Chicago, and the literary center of the great Northwest. The date of its christening is February 3, 1854, and its thirty-seventh year has already ended. Four years after the village was named and platted, and when it numbered hardy more than five hundred inhabitants, my parents came here to live; here their three children were graduated, and from here three of the five who constituted our family have been laid to rest in Rosehill Cemetery. But very likely it would never have occurred to me to try to put on record the history of the town that has been my home since I was eighteen years of age, had not Rev. Dr. Ridgaway, President of Garrett Biblical Institute, asked me to speak to the students on the anniversary of Mrs. Garrett's (the founder's) birthday in 1886. For that occasion I wrote a familiar sort of "retrospect," and out of it has grown this more extended yet wholly informal account of the origin, history and present condition of our well-beloved town. I speak as one of the earliest pioneers who yet survive in Evanston. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.