Downtown Wadsworth offers slice of history to visitors

Passersby travel through a real-life time capsule every time they make their way down Wadsworth Road and travel between Chicago Avenue and the Metra train tracks.

While in that tiny time warp, a plethora of remnants from the past two centuries lie visible in building facades, but also hidden, in scrapbooks and behind homes and businesses.

Such is the case with the Wadsworth Feed and Saddlery, which offers a variety of items to meet the needs of farmers, gardeners, horse caretakers, pet owners and hobbyists.

The store is owned by the Hays family.

What is now their warehouse in the back of the store was once the Wadsworth train station.

Josie Hays, manager of her family’s store in Wadsworth, said she loves the feel of this area because it provides a homey atmosphere that makes you want to slow down the pace.

The store indeed gives off an air of the present intertwined with the past.

Its rectangular storefront and side greenhouse containing whatever the season inspires, be it Christmas trees, pumpkins or flowers, gives it an old town charm. Look further down and there is a flash of the 1800s with the old train station building in the back of the shop.

On the roof, the original brick chimney has withstood the test of time and Mother Nature’s elements.

The train, or rather the stop the train made there, is essentially what gave birth to the village, said Shawn Ford, president of the Newport Township Historical Society.

In 1872, a Mr. Lux drew up a town plat to encourage a train stop at what is now Wadsworth. He hoped the town would then be called Luxville or Luxberg. But that naming honor instead went to Elisha Wadsworth, who was a significant stockholder of the Chicago Milwaukee St. Paul Railroad.

The farming community of Wadsworth and surrounding areas shipped milk daily to Chicago on what they called “the milk train.”

“When they built the high school in Gurnee, the kids from the Wadsworth area would take the milk train to school,” Ford said.

He and the rest of the members go through old newspapers and preserve stories from people who still remember the days when the village was made. Those days when the train, that now speeds on without making a stop, would gather the people who rode it or dropped off their merchandise and then dispersed through places such as shops, stores and the tavern.

The Duck Inn is the local tavern now. In the past, its location has been used as the local post office and a barbershop.

Tim O’ Neill of Antioch owns the tavern that some of his customers still remember as Blanche’s Duck Inn in the 40s and 50s.

Dave Piktel of Winthrop Harbor has been a loyal patron since then.

He stops by once in a while to say hello to O’ Neill.

“This was a little friendly place and I was told that I could hunt for pheasant next to here,” Piktel said.

Back then at Blanche’s Duck Inn, duck was served with a drink. Behind the bar on a shelf up top rests a menagerie of ducks made out of plastic and wood.

“We’ve collected them over the years. Our customers bring them in,” O’Neill said.

Piktel said 30 years ago the tavern‘s customers were farmers and hunters. Now, patrons are a mix of people in their 20s and 30s at night and an older, retired crowd during the day.

And a trip down memory lane would not be complete without a stop at the historical society building.

The home the society meets in belonged to Grace Shileds, who also owned the Wadsworth Treasure Depot, an antique shop now that’s adjacent to the home.

At the antique store another significant time lapse could pass before the contents are all explored. Old wooden wagons and business signs can be found inside, along with traditional jars of honey.

The antique shop use to be a grocery store that Grace’s parents, Mary “Polly” and Isaac Shields ran, along with a butcher shop that stood across the street from the store.

Inside the home, hundreds of old newspapers depicting life as it once was are stacked ready to be opened and reread.

Some of the old newspapers share ghastly stories of train wrecks at the Wadsworth train station.
In addition, Ford said newspapers mentioned the time one of his relatives robbed the train depot in the 1920s.

Another relative was flirting with his best gal in the car and took his foot off the brake as the train zoomed by. The train took the front part of the car clean off, Ford said.

Ford recalls from memory one particular wreck when he was 5 years old in 1981.

“There have been some three horrible train crashes,” Ford said. “In the one I recall the train hit a semi. The truck driver died, but before he did, he admitted it was his fault.”

Ford believes the historical society is a point of interest for the community. He said few people are banging on the door looking to become a member of the society, which he sees as unfortunate.

He does view interest in  people who want to know about the rich history of the place they live in or pass by as they make their way to other towns. He hopes that interest generates new members for the society so it can continue.

“Anything not collected and preserved today is lost for generations. You see things differently when you have a better understanding of the past,” Ford said.

The society is currently working on a cookbook of old family recipes that will include the history of food establishments that once stood in the area. The Newport Historical Society’s next open house is from 9 a.m. to noon, June 1.