Living in Riverwoods, Illinois

Woods and a trail

The Potawatomi hunted these woods and tapped the maple trees for syrup. The first recorded purchase of land came in 1841, about 40 acres near what is now the corner of Riverwoods and Portwine roads. Riverwoods Road was a Native American trail, and a water-powered saw mill on the Des Plaines River helped settlers build their homes.

Lodges and estates

In 1928 Irene Castle founded Orphans of the Storm at an abandoned kennel in Riverwoods, and the same year Edward and Nora Ryerson bought land along the river and built a cabin. In 1929 the Winnetka chapter of the Izaak Walton League finished a 60-foot log lodge on Portwine Road. The Ryersons’ summer home, Brushwood, was built in 1942.

Rattlesnake Gulch

When the Zimmers bought land on Sherry Lane in 1946, it cost $1,000 an acre, and they hired Edward Humrich to build their house. The woods were so thick that some residents built homes from the timber on their own lots and occasionally got lost in their own woods. Neighbors called the area “Rattlesnake Gulch,” and old-timers objected even to graveling the dirt roads, to keep the area private. The Vernon Woods Owners Association formed in November 1955, four years before the village incorporated in 1959.

A village hall and a preserve

Village Board meetings rotated through residents’ homes until 1969. After a 1970 referendum, the village bought the Walton lodge, and residents donated the labor and materials to renovate it as the Village Hall. After the Ryersons died in 1971, the forest preserve district began managing 550 acres of Ryerson Woods. Friends of Ryerson Woods, now Brushwood Center, was founded in 1984, and in 1995 Ryerson Woods and its buildings joined the National Register of Historic Places. The village’s woodland protection rules carry on Ryerson’s vision.

Source: Vernon Woods Owners Association: History · Brushwood Center: History · Orphans of the Storm: Our History · Village of Riverwoods: Woodlands