Newspaper Clippings for
November, 1979
from the pages of the Warren-Newport Press 1 November 1979
Millburn Area Named National Historic Site
Talk around Millburn these days has been
buzzing with the news that after an almost
four year battle, the Historic Millburn Community
Assn. has finally succeeded in having
much of the unincorporated area placed on
the National Register of Historic Sites.
Dorothy Fettinger, president of the
historic society, has been working from the
beginning to get the hamlet placed on the
register.
As part of the community's bicentennial
celebration in 1976, a historical committee
was formed by the Millburn Congregational
United Church of Christ to attempt to get the
area or a portion of it on the national
register.
After the bicentennial year was past, six
members from the original church group
decided to continue toward the goal to get
national recognition for Millburn as a
historic landmark.
The committee contacted Landmarks, a
nonprofit organization that strives to keep
noteworthy buildings in Chicago and the
surrounding areas from being town down and
aids in restoring them, which sent architects
to Millburn.
The architects came out and said they
liked what they saw and started to help the
committee by writing letters and substantiating
the area as historically important.
In March of 1978, the committee then contacted
the Waukegan Historical Society,
meeting Robert Wagner, a representative of
the Illinois Dept. of Conservation. He came
and took pictures of Millburn and pledged his
help in putting Millburn on the national
register.
Through his efforts, a public hearing was
set up in DeKalb in June of that year during
which it was decided that Millburn was
noteworthy.
Recommendations and information were
sent on to Washington, DC, where the entire
issue remained tangled up in red-tape until it
was recently nominated and accepted to the
National Register of Historic Sites.
The historic district as accepted in
Washington is made up of 17 structures with
varying degrees of historical significance.
According to Mrs. Fettinger, most of the
historic buildings are located along the
intersection of Rte. 45 and Millburn Rd., the
center of the unincorporated community.
"We know progress is coming. On the
western edge of Millburn is Lindenhurst and
on the eastern is Old Mill Creek. Right now,
Lindenhurst is moving towards us," Mrs.
Fettinger said.
When asked if she feels that Millburn will
now become somewhat commercial because of
its new official status, she said, "I think
Millburn will stay quiet and old. The older
people and even the younger people are
much inclined to keep the area rural with the
quiet atmosphere their grandparents and
parents had.
"People have liked Millburn as it is and
haven't really encouraged people to settle
here from way back."
An added factor to preserving the rural
flavor of the community has been the
existence of "land barons" which have
literally surrounded and cutoff much of the
developments - both commercial and
residential - which have altered other communities.
Since there are also a number of
historically significant buildings in the
surrounding area, Mrs. Fettinger was
somewhat disappointed that these structures
could not have been included in the Millburn
Historical District - too much open space
between the buildings and Millburn kept a
much larger area from being named to the
district.
Riding through the tiny community, which
boasts mainly white-wash white homes of
mid-1900 vintage, is a dream come true for
all who wished they could have lived in a
bygone and molasses-slow rural American
town, which is exactly what Millburn looks
like and aims to continue to be.
