The Village of Glen Ellyn owes a debt of gratitude to Thomas E. Hill and Seth Baker who envisioned building a lake in town and spearheaded a drive to collect funds to build it. In fact, the Village of Glen Ellyn owes its name to this lake.
Lake Ellyn was created in the summer of 1889 by damming the brook which ran through town north of the tracks. Several other small creeks and sloughs as well as a natural spring also fed the new lake. Mr. Hill suggested calling it Lake Glen Ellyn -” Glen” for the natural terrain, and “Ellyn,” for the Welsh spelling of his wife’s name, Ellen. When the Glen Ellyn Hotel and Springs Company was formed in 1890, it acquired title to 116 acres just northeast of downtown, encompassing Lake Glen Ellyn and the surrounding land.
Lake Glen Ellyn was an instant hit with the locals. It became so popular that in 1891 residents petitioned to change the name of their town to Glen Ellyn. But Lake Ellyn’s status as a public park was not clear in 1891. The public enjoyed it but ownership remained in private hands one for another 28 years.
In April, 1890, ground was broken for a 100-room hotel built on Crescent ridge overlooking the new lake. It was completed and opened for business in June, 1892, just before the Great Financial Panic of 1893
The hotel lasted as a hotel for less than three years, after which it was used at various times as a private club, a health clinic, a small college and a free hospital run by the Chicago Tribune Company. It was empty when it was struck by lightning on May 1, 1906 and burned to the ground.
When the hotel burned in 1906, the lake and surrounding area had become overgrown and in disrepair. The village brought suit to try to recover the park area, but the courts ruled against Glen Ellyn because no recorded deed existed. In 1914, a 54-acre section called the Lake Ellyn Tract was sold by the successors to the bankrupt Glen Ellyn Hotel and Springs Company to developers Collins and Gauntlet.
The property around Lake Ellyn, which had been mapped as a residential subdivision, remained undeveloped and was purchased by the school district in 1919 when plans were being made to build a high school on Honeysuckle Hill overlooking the lake. The school district drained the lake and filled in the south end of it (which included a large island there) to create a place for the athletic field they wanted to have for the new high school. They then gave what remained of the lake and adjacent area to the newly formed Glen Ellyn Park District.
So, while Lake Ellyn itself was created in 1889, Lake Ellyn Park didn’t come into being until 1919, 30 years later, when the Glen Ellyn Park District was created.
