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Orland Park History

The Village of Orland Park held its first Board of Trustees meeting in the early weeks of 1892, but its history reaches further back in time.

For example, in 1857 the community’s first dedicated school building was built. It was named Center School.

The community’s first school district was organized in 1860.

Names filter out of the past like yellowed notes tucked into the pages of an old book – names like Henry Taylor, Ichabod and William Myrick, Jacob and Bernard Hostert, Thomas Cooper, and John Humphrey.

Henry Taylor arrived in 1834 and became the area’s first settler. Ichabod and William Myrick settled on 139th Street, west of Wolf Road, in 1844 and became Orland Township’s first officials. In the 1850s, Jacob and Bernard Hostert built log cabins for their families. Both structures survived the years and have been reconstructed at new locations by the Orland Historical Society. The Aileen S. Andrew Foundation, established by the mid-1900s business owners of the Andrew Corporation in memory of its founding family, was a key contributor to preserving this historical part of Orland Park’s past. These landmark buildings now stand at the edge of Humphrey Woods, near the Orland Park Village Center.

When the railroad came to the settlement in 1879, its new “Sedgewick Station” forever changed the character of the community. The agrarian hamlet swiftly grew into a thriving commercial and shipping center serving surrounding farms. Known then as Sedgewick, the village became Orland Park when it became incorporated in 1892.

John Humphrey’s parents brought him to the area as a child in 1846. Later, a young Humphrey joined the thousands of hopefuls who sought riches in California’s Gold Rush. In 1861 he returned disappointed but no less enthusiastic. Following the Civil War, he went to college in Michigan and then studied law with a firm in Chicago. He entered politics in 1870 and was elected to the Illinois General Assembly, where he remained for 40 years and 24 years as State Senator. In 1892, he was elected Orland Park’s first President of the Board of Trustees and served until his death in 1914. His Orland Park home is now a museum and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. The home is preserved by the Orland Historical Society. The Twin Towers Church, designed by William Arthur Bennett and built in 1898 as a United Methodist Church, also was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

Initial growth of Orland Park all but stopped around the turn of the century and remained still through much of the first half of the 1900s. In 1950, the population stood at 800, and village boundaries were almost unchanged from original plats. However, the decades since have been remarkable.

Rapid residential, commercial, and industrial development began in the ‘50s; boundaries were extended; and more residential and commercial development occurred.

Nearly the same level of growth continues today. No longer a small rural center, Orland Park is now a sophisticated community of just under 60,000 well-educated people, and it is a sparkling retail and business center for the Chicago Southland area. It is replete with fine homes, excellent schools, and superb recreational facilities. Despite this impressive modernization and growth, the Village history is well-preserved.

The Old Orland Historic District, designated in 1986, contains the same collection of small shops, a general store, churches and houses that framed the early community.

Here, also, is “Antique Row,” a boon to antique lovers and those with a curiosity for the artifacts of yesteryear. The friendly shop owners of Antique Row hold an October fest each autumn to promote their treasures and are open to the public every day. Recently, the Village approved a new set of regulations and design guidelines for Old Orland to help preserve and enhance its distinctive community character and historic architecture. The Village also designated 16 buildings as contributing structures and established a facade Improvement Program to help owners and tenants of these structures restore their exterior building facades. Old Orland is also a part of the Village’s Metra Triangle plan, which includes the rebuilding and rejuvenating of this original section of the Orland Park area. Village antique shop owners are excited to be a part of this mixing of the old and new. The Metra Triangle Plan will add much to the historical flavor of the planned development.