History

History of Friars Cove

Friars Cove subdivision in Addison, IL — 19 miles west of downtown Chicago — was built in the late 60’s and early 70’s. The developer named the subdivision for the nickname of his Catholic high school team in Oak Park, IL — the Fenwick Friars. The streets of the subdivision are named for favorite teachers.

The Lodge was built in the 50’s and was originally used as a hunting lodge.

History of Addison, IL

Addison, village in DuPage County, in northeastern Illinois, a suburb west of
Chicago. It is largely residential with some varied manufacturing. The village
is named for the British statesman and writer Joseph Addison. The city was
incorporated in 1884. Population 29,826 (1980); 32,058 (1990); 34,074 (1998
estimate).

"Addison," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719)

"It is a great presumption to ascribe our successes to our own management, and not to esteem our selves upon any blessing, rather as it is the bounty of heaven, than the acquisition of our own prudence." (Joseph Addison)

In early eighteenth-century English coffeehouse culture, no patron was as distinguished a conversationalist or as delightful an essayist as the Oxford-educated Joseph Addison. Born on May 1, 1672, in Milston, Wiltshire, where his father was rector, Addison had a long career in English politics as a committed Whig and in which he held many offices, including Secretary of Ireland and Secretary of State. He died in London at the age of forty-seven. 

The aim of Addison’s political thought, which was based on a natural law radiating from the divine will and the political equality of man, was the preservation of limited, consensual, and constitutional government and a free, commercial society. Addison’s religion was high-church Anglican, which gives his theological language a formality and orthodoxy many modern readers have found alien. 

But Addison is remembered chiefly for his prose mastery. As Samuel Johnson wrote, "Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the study of Addison." Most of Addison’s essays were published in The Spectator, a popular periodical he founded with his friend Richard Steele. Addison used these light and often gently satirical essays to educate the merchants and tradesmen of the emerging English middle class–what he termed the "middle condition"–in the
manners and morals needful for their stability and legitimacy in English social structure. In C. S. Lewis’s words, Addison’s essays stand firmly "on the common ground of life" and deal "with middle things." 

In doing so, he described the virtues required of people in a commercial society. As Addison counseled, such people must possess courage to take the economic risks required for a prosperous business economy. Further, they must be diligent in the practice of their vocations, frugal in the conduct of their lives, and philanthropic in the management of their estates, and in these ways be good stewards of God’s blessings to them. And such people must be absolutely honest; in Addison’s words, "There is no man so improper to be employed in business as he who is in any degree capable of corruption." 

Sources: The Life of Joseph Addison by Peter Smithers (Oxford,1954), and Joseph Addison’s Sociable Animal by Edward A. Bloom and Lillian D. Bloom (Brown University Press, 1971). From the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty

"Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief," wrote Joseph Addison. For more of Joseph Addison's quotes, click here.

Selected poetry by Joseph Addison can be found by clicking here.

[Editor's question: If anyone knows how or why the village was named after Joseph Addison, please send an e-mail to the web site administrators, Phil & Pam Landers. Perhaps the following explains the reason.]

More history:

It was 1883. Two hearty men, Hezekiah Dunklee and Mason Smith, journeyed out from Chicago in search of new land for farming. The two followed an old Indian trail, the same trail that had been used by General Winfield Scott's army during the Black Hawk War. About 20 miles west of Chicago, they found a grove of trees that provided shade from the summer's sun and shelter from the prairie winds and staked claims. The following year, 1834, Dunklee brought his family to the cabin he had built.

It wasn't long before travelers began calling the site "Dunklee's Grove." Within a decade, Dunklee's Grove was a settlement with a population of 200 individuals. In 1839, the community was formally incorporated. By then, the settlement had several families who had come west from towns in New York and Vermont that were named Addison. They probably thought Addison rolled from the tongue easier than Dunklee's Grove and sounded better. Whatever the reason, the community's name was changed. 

In 1837, Addison's first church was constructed. At this time, Zion Lutheran Church was officially known as German United Reformed Lutheran Congregation at Addison, DuPage County, Illinois. In 1880, the village built its first public school and named it School House No. 1. The school consisted of one room where all grades were taught and remained in use until 1949. 

In 1864, the Lutheran Teacher's Seminary was built, followed by construction of the Lutheran Orphanage and the Kinderheim, a children's center that was later converted into village hall. The new Addison village hall was dedicated in 2000. 

In 1867, Christian Heidemann built a huge windmill on his farm that became a local landmark. It stood 60 feet tall and was 72 feet from tip to tip on its wings. The mill operated until the late 1920s and was destroyed by fire in 1958. 

Addison's first village hall was built in 1894 at a cost of $775 and Lake Street (Route 20) was paved in 1922.

Source: Village Profile