Romeoville Area Historical Society and White Oak Library District presented history program

ROMEOVILLE – The Romeoville Area Historical Society and White Oak Library District building presented The History Behind Romeoville’s Business Boom at the Romeoville library on Oct. 1.

The first in a series of programs, was about early businesses in old Romeoville and Hampton Park. The introduction, given by Historical Society president Nancy Hackett, mentioned many stores, restaurants, and other businesses that operated between the 1880s and 1990s for which no representatives are available to speak.

Examples are the Mitchell Hotel on New Avenue, Murphy’s Café on Isle a la Cache, and several restaurants and taverns on Isle a la Cache. A display created at the museum showed pictures and ads from many of these sites.

Lou Aguillar’s talk about her experiences in hair dressing began with her early job at Lola’s Beauty Salon when she was a young teen living in Romeoville. She then attended Rickey’s School of Beauty Culture in Romeoville and worked for Lola as a beautician. Eventually when Lola retired, Lou purchased the business and continues it with several assistants.

The oil refinery at Romeo Road and New Avenue on the east side of the canal was the topic of Pete Colarelli from Citgo. He wove the varied history of the site from Pure Oil and Union Oil with the extensive history of Citgo, formerly Cities Service. Statistics for the refinery included gallons of oil produced per day and number of workers as the plant expanded its capacity.

Laura Hastert spoke about the long history of White Fence Farm, from the Peabody family through several generations of Hasterts, all living in the area, which had a Lemont address and telephone number at that time. She spoke about the special frying system used to prepare the chicken, the many occasions they hosted, and current practices at the restaurant.

The long-established restaurant currently known as Mongo McMichael’s began as the Hill Top View owned by the LaBiancos. Steve Spandonitis began with his move to Romeoville to work in one of the fast food places near Rt. 53 and Normantown Rd. He then bought Maryland Fried Chicken and saved enough to buy the larger restaurant that has since been known as the Apollo, Boomerang’s, and Mongo McMichael’s.

Andrew Sybert represented Sybert Landscaping. He began with his early years in Romeoville, then described the business and special equipment needed to landscape large properties.

Gary Tendall, also a life-long resident of Romeoville, talked about his memories of living in the slower paced village and attending Valley View School, the only elementary school in town. He worked in his father Larry Tendall’s full service gas station and described the rapport among Romeoville gas station owners at that time. If one station was servicing a car and didn’t have the necessary part, they called another station to obtain it.

The program will continue in the spring with more recent businesses and the growth of industry.

For more information about the museum, call 815 886-0146, email historicalromeoville@yahoo.com.