Happy Birthday Schaumburg! You’re turning 60 this year on March 7, 2016 and we’re happy to celebrate with you!
When you were born, you were a village of two square miles centered around the intersection of Schaumburg and Roselle Roads and you had a population of 130 residents. Over the past 60 years you’ve grown into a village of 19 square miles and an estimated population of 75,000. It has indeed been “Progress Through Thoughful Planning!”
In honor of your birthday year, we’re going to do a monthly blog posting based on some of our favorite things about you.
During the month of January we’re asking the readers of this blog to share their favorite winter thing about Schaumburg–past or present. Maybe it’s a favorite sledding hill, a favorite place you threw snowballs, snowshoeing at Spring Valley, the Woodfield Winter Carnival during the 1980s, reading a good book in front of the fireplace at the library (!) or it’s just a cozy restaurant where you had a warm pizza. Please let us know about your favorite thing.
And to get you in the mood, here are a few photos of snowy Schaumburg, starting with the top photo of the Turret House and the Quindel House on Schaumburg Road. Or, take a look at the Marathon station on the northwest corner of Schaumburg and Roselle Roads during the snowy winter of 1967. There’s also the Buttery back in 1984 prior to the redesign of the front facade and before the power lines were buried.
We’re hoping for a bunch of good responses so start early and often!
Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian
Schaumburg Township District Library
jrozek@stdl.org
History of Schaumburg Township 
On New Year’s Eve 1984 (my first year in Schaumburg) my boyfriend and I went out for a nice meal with friends at the Rusty Scupper. While we were in the restaurant the snow that had started became a strong snow storm. We abandoned our plans for the evening, piled into his Ford LTD and made it back to my apartment on Central Road. His car made it into the driveway and he had to carry me to my apartment because there was no way my heels would have kept me upright! The next morning was sunny and bright with sparkling snow everywhere. Beautiful!
It was January of 1979, my senior year in high school and the snow came down and fast. The snow trapped drivers on the highway and main roads. My father used his snowmobile to go out and get drivers from their cars and get them to either warmer locations or back home.
We moved into the new Weathersfield development in 1959 – the 4th to buy. Webster Lane at the time was very steep. Each winter we would enjoy sledding down the hill in the backyards of the houses at the top of Schaumburg Rd near Webster. We lived at the bottom of the Webster hill just off Schaumburg Rd and would also watch the cars slide down the hill. We would laugh, make bets on which way they would go, and go out and help when needed. In the late 1970’s or early 1980’s the town or builders lowered the hill when they built homes on the north side of Schaumburg Rd. I understand there are far fewer cars sliding down Webster nowadays.
I remember the great snow storm of 67. If you could get to a store the shelves were pretty much bare. When you got home you shared with the neighbors as back then it was pretty much all families with kids. Everything was shut down and us kids loved it. We used to go skating in the flooded parking lot by the barn. I also remember the dances they had at the barn and wearing my oh so cool go go boots.
I loved when the creek behind my house was frozen. We’d walk for what seemed like hours and miles back and fourth. In the days when thing were simpler and we actually went outside and did things. Before Atari! LOL
The fields of Braintree the boundaries of trees that boarding the soybean and corn watching the growth of Schaumburg was great
Back in the early years. When Gary, Bill and I used to spend all night spraying down the parking lots of the pools turning them in skating rinks. That was really a lot of work but a lot of fun also.
My parents moved to town in 1962. My father was one of the original 12 volunteer firemen in town. When they had a call, he would ride his snowmobile through the fields to the firehouse. A few of the firemen would take their snowmobiles to accidents and transport patients to Alexian Brothers in sleds behind the snowmobiles. Once they transported hospital workers from their homes to the hospital by snowmobile. Imagine any of that happening now!