Sycamore is the embodiment of classic small town Mid-America, a place where smiles are a way of life. Downtown parking meters still give six minutes for a penny and if you stay longer than your penny's worth, you may get a ticket that carries a 25-cent fine.

The homes of Sycamore reflect the community's age of 160 years. Along Main Street, Somonauk, and Park Avenue, in the city's Historic District, are grandly styledVictoria mansions and other homes that date back into the mid-1800s. There are contemporary homes, as well. They're springing up on sunlit fields that previously grew corn.

Sycamore is a community of families, so church and recreation needs are satisfied. The churches of 16 denominations dot the neighborhoods. More than 200 acres of park lands are equipped for maximum recreational enjoyment and include a challenging 18-hole golf course.

The schools of Sycamore reach for excellence in every aspect, in curriculum, facilities, instruction, and in administration. Expert health care, aVital community need, is readily available in a modern hospital at the edge of town.

Sycamore is a great place for business and industry. A newly developed 150-acre industrial park offers tailored incentives for plant expansion and relocation. Training and retraining of workers is available through a nearby community college and a state university. And transportation is as near as an Interstate Highway, only five miles away.

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With Interstate Highway 88 about five miles distant, Sycamore is away from the rush that plagues I-System towns. Set some 58 miles west of Chicago, Sycamore's primary arteries are State Highways 64 and 23, east-west and north-south routes respectively. The two highways intersect in the heart of the community and provide links to nearby communities and to I-88 at neighboring DeKalb. Other Interstates within easy reach include I-39,17 miles to the west, and I-90, 19 miles to the north.

Sycamore business and industry are served by a local trucking line and the several interstate firms that provide transport services to DeKalb. Chicago's O'Hare International Airport is about 75 minutes from SycamoreVia interstate highways. Limousine service between the city and O'Hare is available. Nearby DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport is undergoing expansion of runways and facilities and is expected to offer commercial passenger service in the future. The Rockford Airport is about 45 minutes from Sycamore. [Top of Page]

Sycamore traces its origins to the arrival, in 1835, of Carlos E. Lattin who built a cabin on the south bank of the Kishwaukee River. Later, after he married, Lattin built the first frame house in the community.

Rufus Colton and family came to the area in l836 and is credited with laying out the town. Colton paid the salary of the community's first school teacher and also operated its first hotel. In 1839, Colton's brother, Calvin, arrived and took over management of the school and the hotel. He also built a store across the street from the hotel.

In 1837 Sycamore came to prominence as the seat of newly created DeKalb County and early court sessions were conducted in Colton's store. Rufus Colton served as court judge and postmaster.

By 1840 Sycamore was a tinyVillage with a new court house and about a dozen widely separated homes and the Mansion House, a large hotel and banquet house constructed by Capt. Eli Barnes. The lavish hotel attracted scores of travelers and soon became a mecca forVisiting professionals, salesmen, and others. In its later years, the Mansion House was moved several times to make room for growth and finally was destroyed by fire in 1959.

Sycamore was a thriving community with a population of nearly 400 residents by 1850 and in 1858 the city was formally incorporated under the laws of Illinois. A year later, a private rail line was built between Sycamore and Cortlano. At the turn of the century, Sycamore's population had risen to about 3,300 persons and in 1903 the cornerstone was laid for the current court house.

Today's Sycamore treasures its past, a fact evidenced by the Sycamore History District with 36 homes and buildings either on the National Register of Historic Places or nominated for that recognition. The Historic District includes the Court House, the Old Popcorn Stand from the late 19th century that is still open for business, and the Sycamore-Cortland-Chicago railroad depot.

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Sycamore offers all the quiet comforts of small town living in a surprisingly wide array of homes. There are grandVictorians mansions, large executive-style homes in new developments, numerous affordable single family dwellings, crisp new duplexes, townhouses, and apartments, and even attractive mobile home parks.

The early history of Sycamore is seen in beautiful old homes dating from the mid-1800s and including elaborate mansions from the latter decades of the 19th century. These homes are located in the city's Historic District on Somonauk Street, Main Street, and a few other streets close to downtown. They reflect the popular architectural styles of their day - Greek Revival, Queen Anne, Italianate,Victorian - and most are recorded in the National Register of Historic Places.

Throughout much of the community, eye pleasing affordable single family homes line quiet city streets. Most were built in the years just before and after World War II and several generations have grown up in them. Successive owner pride shows in the manner in which the homes have been maintained through the decades.

The city is growing to the south and west and sparkling new homes are replacing corn fields in these areas. Smartly styled contemporary adaptations of traditional architectural designs give these new neighborhoods a bright and unique appearance.

For families who prefer a more pastoral lifestyle, the area around Sycamore has numerous large country homes on properties measured in acres. Stables are not uncommon.

Sycamore is a small town where residents truly enjoy all the quiet comforts of family living.

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Nowhere is the wonderful small town character of Sycamore better portrayed than in its downtown business district. For more than three blocks, Sycamore's State Street is lined with busy stores, shops, and restaurants. Here, parking meters that accept pennies stand as sentries berween angle parking spaces. Here, merchants often know their customers by their first names, just as they did their parents before them. This is small town Mid-America in all its classic appeal.

The National Bank and Henderson's Department Store present the most imposing images on the street, but the tiny Old Popcorn Stand at State and Maple has been there since the late 1800s.

Down the block is the splendid Stratford Inn, built around the 1885 home of Reuben Ellwood, the town's first mayor. A luxurious place to stay for business travelers andVisitors, the hotel features master suites, restaurant and lounge, elegant dining rooms, and a conference center accommodating up to 350 persons.

Commercial growth to the southwest, along DeKalb Avenue, has expanded the shopping opportunities of Sycamore residents. Here, amid hustle and bustle, Sycamore rubs shoulders with its larger neighbor, DeKalb. This is the site of motel chains, national discount department stores, well-known fast food operations, drive-up banks, and a string of auto dealers.
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A diverse industrial base is one of Sycamore's major assets. More than 40 light manufacturing companies call the community home. Among them, only seven employ more than 100 workers, only two have more than 200 employees, and only one employs more than 300 persons.

Ideal Industries, Inc., with 320 employees, is the community's largest firm. It manufactures electrician tools and supplies. A second production facility in DeKalb employs 123 persons.

Second largest is Auto Meter Products, Inc., with 210 workers. The company is an international leader in the manufacture of high quality automotive tachometers, gauges, and electrical speedometers.

Driv-Lok, Inc. is the city's third largest firm. It has 180 employees and produces non-threaded metal fasteners, threaders, groove pins, and square keys which are used by other manufacturers in producing their products.

Johnson Controls, Inc., Hoover Automotive Systems, has 150 employees, making it Sycamore's fourth largest manufacturer. It supplies car seats to Chrysler Corp.

Other Sycamore companies with more than100 employees are Seymour of Sycamore Inc., with 110 workers, an innovative leader in the production of aerosol paints and chemicals thar are distributed worldwide;Valley Recreation Products, Inc., also with 110 employees, manufacturer of high tech electronic darts and other electronic games; and Sycamore Systems, Inc., maker of steel lockers and cabinets, with 108 workers.

The products made in Sycamore are as diverse as the companies that make their homes in the community. They include rebuilt engine parts, bare copper wire products, commercial printing, agricultural products such as planter attachments, custom wood cabinetry, business forms, laser-cut wood inlays, plastic injection molds and dies, canned foods, corrugated containers, precision optical components, propane torches, and can compactors.

Ideal Industries and the city have cooperated to develop a 150-acre industrial park as the setting for new and expanding industry. City officials work closely with firms interested in locating in Sycamore and strive to meet their particular economic assistance needs.

Manufacturers in neighboring DeKalb also provide work opportunities for Sycamore residents. Among the prominent companies are Caterpillar Agricultural Products, a division of Caterpillar Paving Products, DeKalb Genetics Corporation and Nestle Co. are worldwide leaders in agricultural genetics and biotechnology for seed and swine. [Top of Page]