‘It’s like the Super Bowl’: Lilac Time in Lombard culminates in parade on Sunday

Lilacia Park has a gravitational pull even on an end-of-spring weekday.

Moms and toddlers hang out on the Players Green, the central, formal lawn. Someone wrote “Peace” in sidewalk chalk at the top of the stairs leading into the Lombard park. A bunch of sunny day lilies says summer is on its way.

Don’t read too much into the “Bloom-O-Meter” dial, the official gauge for Lilac Time, turned past fully blooming. The Palibin lilacs are holding court now. And Lilac Time is a marathon, not a sprint, starting on the first of May and topped off by a parade on Main Street this Sunday.

“It is very much an identity. People are very proud of living in Lombard. They're very proud of living in the Lilac Village,” said Alison Costanzo, the executive director of the Lombard Historical Society. “Some people might say it's hokey, but I don't know, for a town that's now 45,000 people, the fact that there is still very much this identity to the festival is pretty special.”

That’s evident if you spend, say, five minutes in and around downtown Lombard. A front yard without a lilac is the exception. One home was flying a lilac flag on Tuesday. The Lilac Time Country Store has artwork, books, commemorative ornaments and lapel pins.

It’s housed in the coach house, originally built during the days of the Plum estate. Lombardarians are so fond of lilacs because of Col. William Plum, his wife, Helen, and their trip to Europe.

“This started with two people who brought two lilacs back with them,” Costanza said.

The Colonel

In the early 1900s, the Plums visited the Lemoine gardens in France. It was Helen’s idea to stop there, recalled Gerry Rader Watts, in her book, “The Legacy of William R. Plum: Civil War Telegrapher, Lawyer and Horticulturist.”

“Like so many husbands, Plum knew he also would go — but only to please her! How could he know it would change his life forever?”

Take a self-guided walking tour of the park through the new Lombard Historical Society mobile app, and you’ll learn that the Plums brought back the Mademoiselle Casimir Perier and Michel Buchner, “beginning what would become an extraordinary collection” of lilacs.

Plum was thought to have said, “Just like Lincoln, not much to look at, but true blue,” of the lilac named after the nation’s 16th president, according to a Lombard Park District scavenger hunt flyer.

“There were 1,200 specimens on the property at the time of their passing,” Costanza said.

Weeping mulberries are also among the original plantings still on the grounds.

“They donated their house to become the first library, and their property to become the first park. I mean, talk about forward way of thinking. They wanted to leave that legacy to future generations,” Costanza said.

Jens Jensen, a renowned landscape architect from Denmark who designed Chicago’s Columbus Park, left his mark with the use of flagstone, the pond, depicted as a “pool” in blueprints, and other hallmarks.

“He wanted people out in space, participating in nature, enjoying nature. That's why there's the Players Green. That's why there's the hill. The park was designed to bring people together, and it's still doing that today,” Costanza said.

‘So much nuance’

Community leaders came together to create a festival around Lilacia Park. The first was held in 1930. Women donated their silver spoons for the first Lilac Queen crown, designed by artist Christia Reade. Today, the Lombard Junior Women’s Club still treats the Lilac Queen and her court like royalty.

“Lilacia Park has always been this place centered around community,” Costanza said.

The Lombard Historical Society will lead guided walking tours of the park through Saturday. Take in the delicate Syringa meyeri ‘Palibin’ and the single, pinkish flowers, as described by the Lombard Garden Club.

“There’s still plenty of lilacs to see. The lates and the very lates have just started to open,” Costanza said. “The very lates are the tree variety, and they’re just starting to bud.”

The parade will start at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Glenbard East High School and head north on Main Street to Maple Street. People line up chairs far in advance. The historical society will have a float in the parade.

“It's like the Super Bowl here … there is something intrinsically special about … this park in the middle of downtown Lombard, that's like eight and a half acres, that holds so much nuance,” Costanza said.

And to think, it all started with two people and two lilacs.

“The people of Lombard have never lost sight of this special person,” Rader Watts wrote in her book, copies of which are in the Country Store.

“More important than his lilacs and a library bearing his wife’s name, William R. Plum left to the people of Lombard a legacy that exemplifies the need for community spirit.”

Lilac Time in Lombard

When: Ends with parade on Sunday, May 17

Where: The festival revolves around Lilacia Park, 150 S. Park Ave.

Who: Lilac Time is presented in partnership with the Lombard Park District, village of Lombard, Lombard Chamber of Commerce, Lombard Garden Club and the Lombard Historical Society.

Tours: Tickets for the Lombard Historical Society’s Lilac Heritage Tours can be purchased at lombardhistory.org. Tours start at 11 a.m. from the Carriage House at 23 W. Maple St.

New mobile app: The Lombard Historical Society has launched a Historic Downtown Lombard App, featuring a self-guided walking tour of Lilacia Park. The society also will be adding more content.