Built as railroad town, Bartlett celebrates 125 years

John Whitmer has lived in the same three-block radius in Bartlett for 78 years.

He's watched the village's population grow from about 500 to more than 40,000, and he's seen the police department grow from a one-man show to a 77-person operation.

The church Whitmer was baptized and married in - Immanuel United Church-Christ - and the village of Bartlett are celebrating their 125th anniversary.

The village is incorporating images from the past - including old-fashioned bicycles, trolleys and street performers - into the Heritage Days celebration that began Friday and continues through Sunday.

But Whitmer recalls firsthand details from growing up in the railroad town.

His father joined the volunteer fire department in 1939, the year after Whitmer was born. The department consisted of 12 volunteers at the time, Whitmer said.

"They were all merchants in town, and they responded when there was a call," Whitmer said.

The village kept their rigs at two different locations: one across the street from a dry goods store, now JC's Mexican Restaurant on Bartlett Avenue, for the city calls, and another one behind a grocery store for the rural calls.

"They used to have a siren. They would ring it once for a city call and twice for rural calls," Whitmer said.

Whitmer joined the fire department as a volunteer in 1959 and served in that capacity until 1965. He became deputy chief in 1974 and served at that position until 1993. After that, he served as a fire commissioner and fire trustee until 2015.

Whitmer was honored for his 46 years of service to the Bartlett Fire Protection District in April 2015.

The house Whitmer and his wife, Shirley, live in also tells its part of Bartlett's story.

Their white house on Hickory Street was originally two blocks away and operated as a school for the United Church of Christ. The school was closed after a public school was opened, and an interested party bought the schoolhouse and moved it to the 100 block of Hickory Street, where it was converted into a home.

Whitmer and his wife bought the house in 1971 and have lived there ever since.

Walking by, it isn't apparent that it was once a schoolhouse.

"But the exterior walls and roof and floor are still made out of the same wood as the original building," Whitmer said. "So if the walls could talk, they would speak German."

German was the spoken language of the early settlers in the area in the mid-1850s, Bartlett historian Carol Ann Kunkel said.

"Immanuel isn't the only building still around from the early days. What is now Platform 18 Tavern & Grill has "always been an establishment that served beer," Kunkel said.

Most people don't know how old the building is, but "old-timers know it's been there forever," she said.

Herman Niewisch built the tavern in 1873, around the same time the Bartlett train station was constructed. What was then the

Bartlett Tavern was the site of the election of the first village board after incorporation in 1891.

Platform 18 reopened last March after a broken furnace caused the water and beer lines and taps to freeze.

The original Bartlett train station is also still standing and now operates as a museum. The station was named after the farmer who donated the land for the railroad.

For a complete schedule of anniversary activities during Heritage Days, visit bartlettheritagedays.com.