Builders' plan ignited controversy

Vernon Hills' Summer Celebration began Wednesday with a concert to mark the 50th anniversary of the village.

But as annual summertime tradition continues, it is likely that few, if any, of the revelers there have firsthand knowledge of the controversy that surrounded the founding of the town.

Now known for millions of square feet of stores, big corporations and expensive homes, it's hard to envision the furious legal challenges that marked the beginning of Vernon Hills.

Two separate legal actions, one of which reached the Illinois Supreme Court, continued for three years before and following the incorporation on July 16, 1958.

Without a quaint Main Street or rows of Victorian homes, history is a relative term for Vernon Hills. Certainly there have been plenty of milestones and disputes over the years, including those over the land acquisition for Westfield Hawthorn shopping center and the massive, upscale Gregg's Landing subdivision.

Since virtually no physical trace of the original town remains, however, one might say that Vernon Hills' officials live in the present and look to the future.

Which is what Barney Loeb and Quinn Hogan, both since deceased, were doing in 1957.

Having essentially created the village of Streamwood, the partners operating as L and H Builders Inc., bought 120 acres south of Route 45 and east of Butterfield Road for $60,000.

About 20 homes near what is now the village hall on Evergreen Drive had been built when on Aug. 31, 1957, a petition signed by 41 people (later reduced to 36) to incorporate was filed with the Lake County Clerk.

The late Matthew Teolis, a company employee at the time, circulated the petitions and became the first village president. An honorary street sign near village hall marks his tenure.

"If it weren't for my father, that town wouldn't exist because he pushed," contends his son, Michael, a Chicago resident.

Neighbors in the surrounding rural area objected, saying the petition-signers worked for L and H and were trying, by one newspaper account, to "perpetrate a fraud" on the state.

They feared the move was being made to avoid the county zoning of one house per acre. They were right.

"The mayor was our sales manager and all the people living in those 20 houses all were subcontractors or had something to do with L and H Builders," Loeb said during a videotaped interview in January 2003.

"You might say there just was a little bit of control."

One thing that eluded them was the name. As the homes were built on Forest Court, Forest Way and Oak Forest Lane, they thought Forest Hills would be a fitting name for the town. County officials said there were too many entities with a similar moniker and told them to reconsider. Vernon Hills, named after Vernon Township, was the choice.

A county judge found the petition met legal requirements for incorporation and called for an election on Sept. 24, 1957. Objectors appealed and the election was delayed. The appeal was unsuccessful, although the objectors filed to incorporate their own town - Indian Creek.

Finally, on July 15, 1958, voters approved the incorporation of Vernon Hills 45 to 1 and it was certified the next day. The Indian Creek proposal passed 57 to 42.

Three weeks later, Teolis was elected village president and his wife, Arlene, was elected as one of the original trustees on the village board. She lives in Florida.

"They (Hogan and Loeb) felt they could do something there," she said recently. "It was a very small area to begin with (but) there was a lot going on, a lot of controversy because the next town over didn't think we should be there."

Yet another hurdle presented itself in late 1958, when the Lake County State's Attorney filed a complaint, saying Teolis and others held "pretended offices" and their election was contrary to public policy.

The Illinois Supreme Court disagreed.

In an opinion issued Sept. 29, 1960, the court upheld a circuit court finding, ruling there was no evidence L and H controlled Vernon Hills for its own private purposes.

Vernon Hills had 123 residents, according to the 1960 census. But L and H was ramping up.

"We sold 188 houses in one weekend, prefabricated homes," Loeb said in the taped interview. "We were putting up six houses in one day." A closing cost of $250 was all it took to buy a home.

"We had three models and the sales office. This is in the middle of January. They must have been standing out for about half a block waiting to get in," Loeb continued.

"My ex-partner said, 'Anybody who's got a $10 bill wave your hand. Step up to the counter. Here, you just bought yourself a house.' "

The pair also built the members only Tally Ho Country Club, including a golf course, swimming pool, motel and restaurant.

The restaurant featured a Geisha room complete with a "Geisha gal" Loeb said, where customers had to take their shoes off.

The venture ultimately faded. Loeb and Hogan moved on to build in Hanover Park. The village acquired the golf course and surrounding property in the late 1970s.

The Tally Ho club house was used as the village hall from 1980 to 2002 before it was turned over to the Vernon Hills Park District, where it remains in use as the Larry Laschen Community Center.

The village grew to more than 1,000 residents in its first 10 years and continued an exponential expansion to the current population of 23,353.

The turning point came in 1971, when the village annexed property north of Route 60 for the 1.3 million-square-foot Hawthorn Mall. The adjoining New Century Town subdivision was part of a $250 million joint venture.

The 1980s saw the development of business parks. The last major housing push began in the mid-1990s with the annexation of a portion of the Cuneo property for the upscale Gregg's Landing subdivision, which has more than 1,600 homes. A waterfront lot in the near-built-out area is being marketed for $550,000.

"My ex-partner used to say, this is where the wind turned around from farm land to a metropolitan city," Loeb said.

He joked that the "Hills" in Vernon Hills refers to a the 50-foot high tee box on 7th hole of the municipal golf course, formed with dirt excavated to create a man-made lake.

Hogan's ashes were scattered on the hill and fairway.