The odd link between the Congress Expressway and Glen Ellyn tennis

The odd link between the Congress Expressway and Glen Ellyn tennis

The Sun Times article commemorating the 75th anniversary of Chicago’s expressway era ‘How Chicago’s expressways were born — and furthered segregation’ has a connection to my Glen Ellyn recreational activities.

From April thru October, I play tennis on the clay courts at Lake Ellyn Park in Glen Ellyn. Some years back the longest playing member of our tennis crew told me we were pounding our feet on the clay and other detritus taken from the mammoth 12 year construction project that displaced 13,000 Chicagoans and 400 businesses.

How could that be, I inquired. He advised one of the contractors was a tennis buff who lived in or near Glen Ellyn. He arranged with the Park District to convert the hard surface courts into clay with tons of clay, stones and dirt from the Big Dig along Congress Street.

The article mentioned that little effort was made to document where all those 13,000 homesteads and 400 businesses relocated. But I do know where some of the subsurface went. And every time I step onto the century old tennis courts at Lake Ellyn, I imagine I’m playing tennis on the Congress Expressway.