No Man's Land | |
Unincorporated area | |
Country | United States |
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State | Illinois |
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Location of No Man's Land within Illinois
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Wikimedia Commons: Wilmette, Illinois | |
Website: http://www.wilmette.com/ | |
No Man's Land, Illinois was never an official place name, but has been used to refer to at least two areas that fit the broader meaning of No man's land.
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Most commonly, the term was used to refer to a small unincorporated area on the shore of Lake Michigan, between the exclusive wealthy suburbs of Wilmette, Kenilworth, and Winnetka. Undeveloped for nearly a century after the first settlement of the area, no neighboring municipality wanted to annex it, and it became a haven for shady activities.[1]
In the 1920s, a developer envisioned and began construction of a planned club and beach hotel complex to be called "Vista Del Lago" (Spanish for "Lakeview"). The club was actually built, in a Moorish Revival architectural style, on the west side of Sheridan Road, but the Great Depression prevented completion of the hotel. In 1928, one of the earlier automobile-oriented shopping centers, Spanish Court, opened adjacent to the club.
The lack of development on the east side of the road, coupled with the club's location in a relatively lawless unincorporated area, led to a state legislator in the 1930s terming No Man's Land "a slot machine and keno sin center where college students were being debauched with beer, hard liquor and firecrackers."[1] In 1942, after decades of disputed ownership and legal wrangling, the area was annexed by the village of Wilmette.[2][3] The club burned down shortly thereafter; the area is now the home of the Plaza del Lago shopping center on the west side of Sheridan Road and a small number of anomalous high-rise residential buildings east of Sheridan.
Actor Charlton Heston was born in No Man's Land while his family was living in this area.[4]
The term, according to one author, was used prior to the expansion of Evanston and Chicago to refer to what is now the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago.[5]