Real Estate

The 1920s could truly be called a Boom Time for Libertyville. This agricultural-based community steadily grew into a more urban area throughout the decade. Large tracts of land were subdivided and development was everywhere, as you can see in the clippings below. Some of the subdivisions that came into being at this time include Countryside Manor Estates, Libertyville Highlands, Rockland Manor, and Thornbury Village. Thirty wooded acres owned by J. W. Butler (located west of Elm Court and extending west to Butler Lake) was sold and parceled into lots for individual sale.

Farming was still an important part of the community, however. In the early 1920s Lake County boasted 1400 farmers. One of the largest farms in the Libertyville area was Hawthorn Farm, owned by utilities magnate Samuel Insull, which spread over 4300 acres. For about the first half of the 1920s the farm lost money every year, but in 1927 the farm’s manager Joseph C. Reuse tried amending the soil and planted improved varieties of oats. Hawthorn Farm had a bumper crop for the first time in 11 years. In 1924 Quaker Oats Company bought farm property to the northwest of Libertyville (across from Butterfield School today) to use for an experimental farm. This property was owned and operated by Quaker until the 1930s.