An Historic Flair

The administration of the village’s first mayor, John Brown, built the first Village Hall in 1908. It housed the business office and the garage for the fire department. In 1973, Mayor Joseph Armondo’s administration constructed a new Village Hall on the newly acquired Deer Haven property now known as Veteran’s Park. It housed the business offices and the police department. In 2003 under Mayor Nancy Koske’s administration, the Village offices were moved into the new Village Hall on Thillen Drive, the site of the former Community Building. They then remodeled the Route 59 facility into the Edward Gerretsen Public Safety Building in 2005.

There were three significant clubhouses that were constructed on the western shoreline of Fox Lake with materials brought in by boat. They were the Cedar Island Club (later called the Fox Lake Hotel) in 1877, the Elgin Waltonian Clubhouse (later called the Waltonian Hotel) in 1874, and the Mineola Hotel in 1884.