Northbrook Historical Society: Round-Up Days a long gone - but not forgotten - summer treat

It has been 35 years since the last Round-Up.

That would be Round-Up as in Round-Up Days, the Northbrook festival sponsored for three decades by George W. Benjamin American Legion Post 791.

With relaxed pandemic rules allowing more events to return to the current entertainment calendar, longtime Village residents may recall when Round-Up Days was an eagerly anticipated summer happening in Northbrook. The final three-day version took place in 1986.

Round-Up Days, an early to mid-July event, included an always popular Friday night fish fry along with carnival rides, games, entertainment, dancing, and a raffle.

Post 791's involvement with festivals actually went back much farther than Round-Up Days. Founded in 1936, the Post soon joined the Civic Foundation as co-sponsors of Northbrook Days. According to "Northbrook, Illinois: The Fabric of Our History":

"By 1949 the Legion had raised enough money, mainly through Northbrook Days, to purchase about three acres of land at the southeast corner of Walters Avenue and Pfingsten Road. With this property, they decided to break away from the Civic Foundation and hold an annual carnival of their own called Round-Up Days. This helped finance the construction of the Legion Hall."

Round-Up Days did not happen right away, and the Legion's involvement with Northbrook Days continued into the mid-1950s - but by the late 1950s, Round-Up Days was going strong. In 1959, for example, in addition to the usual carnival attractions, the event was highlighted by a Sunday afternoon concert by the Northbrook American Legion Band under the direction of John Paynter, the leader of bands at Northwestern University.

In 1965, the festival's kickoff event featured Northbrook's annual bicycle races at Northbrook Junior High School. A news story that year explained how proceeds from Round-Up Days "enable the Post to carry out its obligation to hospitalized veterans, child welfare activities, Scouting, and Americanism, and community projects."

The 1973 edition of Round-Up Days included a dozen carnival rides. Raffle prizes also remained impressive; for example, in 1985 the top award was a Plymouth Voyager with second place providing a weeklong trip to Hawaii.

Though it was not advertised as such at the time, 1986 turned out to be the final year for Round-Up Days. It came about due to the event-planning challenges for an aging Legion membership along with the fact that Post 791 had sold some of the vacant land it owned at Walters and Pfingsten.

In 1987 there was a short-lived, two-day Legion Fun Days with music, dancing, and food. Soon all that was left of Round-Up Days were Thursday night Bingo games and the Friday night fish fry. Those eventually ended too, and now only memories remain of a once popular Northbrook summer festival.

• For information about the Northbrook Historical Society & Museum, visit northbrookhistory.org.