Everyone has heard how Louis Jolliet and his companion, Pere Jacques Marquette, passed through the vicinity of what is now Bedford Park on their way back from their exploration of the Mississippi River in 1673. Almost forgotten is the businessman who had already set up shop on the strategic high point between the watersheds of the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence rivers.

In the 1660s, at approximately 49^th and Harlem, Pierre Moreau built his cabin near the portage linking the Des Plaines River with the south branch of the Chicago River. Moreau was familiar with the problems small businessmen have complained about down the centuries: interfering government, high costs and difficult customers.

The French government tried to control the fur trade with monopolies, fixed prices and numerous regulations. The result was to create a class of colorful free spirits called coureaurs de bois ("woods runners"). Moreau was one of them. Not much else is known about him. He and a companion, who was a surgeon as well as fur trader, are remembered because they sheltered Pere Marquette in their hut when he returned to the Illinois country in 1674.

Most coureaurs de bois had given up on trying to farm in New France. Farming there was too difficult. They found, even with all the dangers and hardships, trading with the Indians was more promising. As early as the 1630s they left their homes and went far into the wilderness to live as they pleased and disregard many of the laws and regulations emanating from Quebec.

They learned to live with the Indians, picking up Indian lore and tradition while teaching the Indians European ways. The Indians, who had originally hunted for food and clothing, began hunting in earnest for beaver to trade with the French for such luxuries as guns, powder, blankets, cloth and liquor. The coureaurs de bois would paddle and portage, often across hostile territory, to French settlements to trade these furs for goods. Or, illegally, sometimes to English or Dutch settlements to get a better price.

In 1671, the French claimed all the discovered and undiscovered areas of the Illinois country for their own. During the ceremony, which lasted several days, the Indians told tales of a great river which ran many miles to the sea. The French, interested in continual westward expansion and what they hoped could be a water route across the country to the Pacific, sent Jolliet and Marquette to explore this river. On June 17, 1673, they left the Wisconsin River and entered into the great Mississippi. After a month’s canoeing downstream, they headed back north, having decided that the river must to the Gulf of Mexico or to Florida.

It wasn’t until 1682 that the journey to the mouth of the Mississippi was completed by an explorer, Robert Cavelier, sieur de la Salle. On April 9, 1682, La Salle erected a column and, in the name of France, claimed possession of all that the territory from the Appalachians to the Rockies. He names it Louisiana.

The French remained the major settlers of the area, including Illinois, until 1763. At the end of the Seven Year’s War the English claimed everything east of the Mississippi. Twenty years later Illinois and the surrounding lands passed to the United States as part of the treaty that secured independence for the new republic. Because of Indian hostility, the Americans were hesitant to settle the area before the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. That’s when the Indians ceded "one piece of land six miles square at the mouth of the Chicago River emptying into the southwest end of Lake Michigan"—the site of Chicago. In 1803 Fort Dearborn was built to secure the portage and protect the area’s sprinkling of settlers. After the onset of war with British in 1812, the garrison was ordered to retreat. A mile and a half from the fort, Indians ambushed the column. The Fort Dearborn Massacre left 53 people dead.

In 1816, the federal government rebuilt the fort and once again people began settling the area. They were encouraged by the acquisition of a strip of land from local Indian tribes that stretched southwest as far as Ottawa, creating a buffer to protect settlers from the Native Americans and vice versa.

When the Erie Canal opened in 1825, the new route made it easier for newcomers to reach the high point at the foot of Lake Michigan. By 1830 Chicago had 50 settlers with the promise of more when the Illinois and Michigan Canal was completed. In the beginning of digging in 1836, property values rose dramatically. By 1837 the number of inhabitants grew to 4,170. In 1848, when the canal opened, Chicago had access both to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi and held a position central to commerce between the Gulf of Mexico and the Eastern Seaboard.

Even as the canal was linking Chicago to the Mississippi, a revolution in transcontinental transportation brought further advancement and more people to Chicago. Railroads could cover t he vast distances between watercourses.

By the mid-1850s the railroads had reached from the Atlantic to Chicago, St. Louis and Memphis. People and goods no longer had to follow the slow water route up the Hudson, across the Erie Canal and into the Great Lakes. Travelers simply got on a train in New York and c hugged directly to Chicago at what seemed like blinding speed.

Even the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 couldn’t check the Chicago area’s progress. Immigrants flocked to the area in search of land and opportunity, providing labor for the new businesses that sprang up daily.

As railroad after railroad found its way to Chicago, they created a maze that began to cause traffic problems. In 1856, there were ten trunk lines and 3,000 miles of track with 58 passenger trains and 38 freight trains coming and going daily.

Originally, two "belt lines" were built surrounding the city to divert the freight switching in and out of the main hub. One of the belt lines was the Chicago and Calumet Terminal Railway (C&CT). It was backed by the Northern Pacific, and would eventually become the Indiana Harbor Belt. The other was the Belt Railroad Division of the Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad Company, backed by five major railroads. This was destined to become the Belt Railway Company of Chicago.

As Chicago became more important in national commerce, Alpheus Beede Stickney presented plans to his stockholders for what he planned to be the largest freight clearing yards ever. Stickney, a former school teacher and lawyer, by 1888 had already served as an executive of several major railroads.

A "dynamic" leader, according to local historian Robert Milton Hill, Stickney knew something would have to be done about the tangle of freight cars piling up around Chicago.

For his visionary scheme, he bought up a swampy area where the belt lines ran closest together. He would drain the area and build a high point. If he made a yard available to all the trunk lines that ran into Chicago at cost or even a modest profit, they couldn’t resist using it.

Enormous profits would accrue from owning the surrounding land. There would be warehouses to serve the railroads adjacent to the yards. Industrial sites would be in demand. Property values would soar.

Having recently incorporated the Stickney Warehouse Company, Stickney believed that it in turn could back the railroad company necessary for operation, the Chicago Union Transfer Railway Company (CUT). His idea was approved by his board of directors.

By early 1890, CUT had drained the land and built enough track for limited operation. Many of the trunk lines had, as expected, bought in. In 1891, CUT was ready to go, but no new trains entered the yards despite the huge amount of railroad traffic flowing into Chicago and the financial support of some of the major trunk lines.

The existing belt lines wouldn’t cooperate. They were already switching freight cars. Why send business to the CUT’s clearing yards and incur double switching fees for the trunk lines that owned them? In addition, those trunk lines that lacked ownership in a belt railroad had no guarantee that their cars would be transported to and from the yards quickly and efficiently. In the eye-=gouging business atmosphere of the times, they were afraid they might put money into a competitor’s pocket.

As a further deterrent to the success of what came to be called the Clearing Yards, there was financial insecurity across the country at the time. Money was tight. A.B. Stickney was certain that eventually the yards would have to be used due to massive amounts of rail traffic so he kept the land together and held on.

Another Bedford Park area business pioneer, Henry Hobart Porter, moved west from his native Maine as a young man. He found a job with the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad and swiftly moved up the ranks. In 1860, Porter was offered the position of Chicago station agent by the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad. He took it and in only two years became the general superintendent. During the Civil War, Porter worked hard keeping supplies and food rolling to the troops. After the war, he and a friend entered the lumber business to help rebuild the buildings that had been destroyed across the country. As a lumberman, Porter remained in Chicago and worked with many of the growing corporations, including the First National Bank, where he sat on the board of directors. Still attracted to railroading, Porter eventually returned to the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad as general manager.

Then, in 1898, Henry Hobart Porter incorporated the Chicago Transfer and Clearing Company (CT&G), which bought control of CUT for $400,000 cash in 1899. It also acquired 2,000 acres for cash or stock at prices up to $500 per acre, and replaced Stickney in the Stickney Warehouse Company and the National Warehouse and Transfer Company.

Meanwhile, a new idea for switching was spreading across the country: the hump yard. Revolutionary in its concept, the new design allowed gravity to pull the cars into the switching yards instead of the expensive locomotives which had been in use earlier. Porter decided to change the design of the original yard, ending up with one of the first two-way hump yards. It could switch either from east to west or from west to east. The track setup offered each warehouse and factory its own siding. None of the streets had to cross a track, eliminating one of the major delays in transporting goods.

Completed in 1902, the Clearing Yards under Porter began to prosper, but only for a few months. The extra switching fee and rivalry from the belt railroads soon stalled business. Porter and his son, Henry H. Porter Jr. were forced to devise a new plan. They did. By extending their own lines to join with several of the trunk lines, they could bring trains to their own yards without using the belt lines at all. Still, with the competition of the belts, there was not enough business to keep them active.

During the same period, the traffic coming into Chicago kept steadily increasing, creating an even larger need for just the service Clearing could provide. Finally in 1909, the traffic in the city reached a standstill, hopelessly tangled and with nowhere to go.

Now the Clearing Yards could finally come into play. With 100 miles of empty track they could help untangle the mess and still have room to take on new business, which suddenly began pouring in. By the end of 1910, the Chicago rails were clear. By 1911, the railroads had banded together and created one flat fee for switching cars. This increased everyone’s business.

By 1912, the Chicago & Western Indiana railroad purchased the Clearing Yards, together with the eastbound connecting track at 72^nd Street and the northbound track paralleling Cicero Avenue, for $4,400,000. Thirteen trunk line railroads organized the Belt Railway Company of Chicago to handle their interchange of freight. The Belt Railway Company took a 50-year lease on the Clearing Yards from the Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad which was jointly owned by five of the 13 lines.

The C&WI rebuilt the 10-year-old yards, double tracking and elevating the Belt’s main line. In return, it took possession of the Belt’s land and leased it back to the Belt to defray the cost. After 50 years, the Belt could then buy the land outright from the C&WI, which it did in 1962.

Railway Age for June 4, 1927, told the success story, "The Belt Railway of Chicago classifies about 1,500,000 cars of freight annually in its yards at Clearing, Ill., just southwest of Chic ago. This is the equivalent of 125,000 cars a month, or slightly more than 4,000 cars a day. In one 10-hour shift during a busy season, 3,007 cars have been classified, or more than 300 cars an hour, and it is estimated that it is possible to classify 10,000 cars a day in these yards."

The yards were run quite efficiently. Twelve of the 13 owning lines operated into Clearing with their own crews, creating an almost direct interchange. The receiving and departing lines were located to facilitate this practice. The northbound and westbound receiving yards were side by side at the west end of the yard. The eastbound and southbound were at the east end of the yard. Transfer crews bringing trains into the receiving yards could make up outgoing trains from the departure yard with a minimum of switching. The general scheme of operation was to keep the cars in movement east and west. The classification yards, consisting of four units with 26 classification tracks each, and the leads over the hump were arranged so that it was possible to hump cars with four crews at the same time. Each yard operated as a separate unit.

When a train arrived from the south or east with cars for the north or west, it was placed in the east receiving yard. A yard clerk would check the train as it pulled in while the conductor delivered his papers to the east yard office. There a list was prepared in the same order as the cars in the train. Copies were then distributed by a pneumatic tube system to the west yard office, the towerman, the checker, a conductor at the hump and to the superintendent’s office. In the meantime, the train would have been inspected for defects. Then the cars were taken up to the hump over the lead tracks at the north side for classification.

The humping crew consisted of one conductor and two brakemen. The conductor would handle the switch list and the signal at the top of the hump which governed the speed of the humping locomotive. One brakeman would cut the cars, under the direction of the conductor, as they went over the hump, while the other brakeman on the opposite side made certain the knuckles were open and fixed the chains for the riders (brakemen) if necessary. The switches were run by the towerman. The riders would climb to the top of the car and control the brakes manually, slowing the car until it rode up behind the next car with just enough momentum to couple without breaking anything.

The area was already developing as a farming community prior to the inception of the Clearing Yards. As early as the 1840s, farmers had been moving in, mainly from Germany and Holland. In 1842, one John Simpson bought land for 62½ cents an acre in what is now part of Oak Lawn. With the increased population of Chicago and then the final utilization and purchase of the belt lines and Clearing Yards, more and more residents arrived. As part of the plan originated by H. H. Porter, the sale of residential lots and construction of houses by CT&G started there in 1911. (The company conducted a profitable operation both in selling unimproved lots and constructing and selling houses until about 1921, when it came to the conclusion that its future lay in industrial development.)

In 1912, the Village of Clearing was incorporated, with the encouragement of the CT&C. The company worried that another local government might annex the area, including the Porter holdings.

On January 8, the first village president, Timothy Mahoney, was elected, along with six village trustees, a village clerk and a police magistrate. Then came a treasurer, village attorney, village marshal, health inspector, plumbing inspector, sewer and drain maintenance inspector, electrical inspector and village fire marshal. The volunteer fire department consisted of every able-bodied man in the village.

As one of the first orders of business the new village government composed the "Compiled Ordinances of the Village of Clearing." One notable entry read: "Chapter One: Animals Running at Large, Section 1. What Animals Prohibited; Where, Section 2. Penalty, Be it ordained by the President and the Board of Trustees of the Village of Clearing. 1.  Section 1: The running at large of horses, cattle, swine, sheep, goats and geese, within that part of the Village of Clearing lying South of the North line of 63^rd Street, is hereby prohibited."

The fine for allowing animals to roam was two dollars per animal. Chapter Six of the ordinances concerned concealed weapons. Although anyone could carry a rifle about, the ordinance said, "It shall be unlawful for any person, within the limits of the Village of Clearing, to carry or wear under his clothes, or conceal about his person any pistol, fire arm, "Slung" shot, cross knuckles or knuckles of lead, brass or other metal, or bowie knife, dirk knife, dirk, razor or dagger, or any other dangerous and deadly weapon." The penalty was confiscation and a fine of $5 to $200.

Laws considered necessary for keeping the Sabbath holy were also entered into the book, among them were Section 8, forbidding the firing of everything from cannons to firecrackers, and Section 9, banning "the playing of musical instruments in public that would tend to disturb the peace on Sunday," and Section 10 which forbade swearing or interrupting any kind of holy gathering.

Also several laws governed the treatment of animals, ranging from outlawing cruelty of any kind to ensuring that no one grazed animals on public lands. Section 30 read, "No person shall engage in any sport or exercise tending to scare horses" and Section 46 dealt with the prevention of trapping or killing "robins or any other small birds" within the city limits.

Clearing, which had started as a little farming community, could not help be affected by its neighbor, the rail yards. By 1915, the Belt had turned the Clearing Yards into the center of Chicago’s freight car switching industry employing 2,000 to 3,000 workers. CT&C now had 18 industries and it was obvious that the growth had really just begun. The Chicago Clearing Land Association, a CT&C business interest, worked to attract people to the area.

The association called Clearing the "greatest manufacturing and residence suburb of Chicago." For higher priced land, not including corner lots, which were larger, the price ran $400 a lot 30 x 124 feet. Lower priced lots were $400 for a block of four (30 x 125.5 feet) or $125 each. CCLA was selling land cheap in an effort to expand the business and residential community. CCLA graded the streets and laid sewers, water and gas mains.

In spite of the CCLA’s efforts, the village could not sustain itself. Due to the increase in the number of wooden houses, the fire department was going to have to be improved. The quality of the well water was questionable. Costs for schools and other municipal services were going to rise steadily. On April 6, 1915, the Village of Clearing voted to annex itself to the City of Chicago.

When the Corn Products Refining Company moved into the area in 1907, a new era began. In 1909, Ohmlac Manufacturing Company had a factor built, and deals were made with the Amalgamated Roofing Co., Rubbertex cloth and Paper Co. and the Whitaker Manufacturing Company. Each bought buildings at cost on long-term contracts with nothing down, land included at an average of $500 per acre.

Even as the rail traffic increased due to the Chicago tie-up in 1909-1910, more businesses settled in the area. The Chicago Car & Equipment Company, Berwind-White, J. H. Flick Construction Company and the Merchants Steel and Supply Company were all there by 1912. New manufacturing plants included Arthur J. O’Leary and Son Co., American Concrete Pile and Pipe Company and the Reimersmair Biplane Company. Each new arrival increased the value of the Clearing Yards and the surround land. When the Belt Railway Company bought the Clearing Yards, the CT&C entered into its next stage as a land development firm. The Chicago Transfer and Clearing Company still had 2,800 acres on either side of the yards. The original plan, as designed by the first H.H. Porter, was to develop the land south of the yards as industrial with a supporting residential community north of the yards. H.H. Porter, Jr., saw no reason to revise it now that it was really underway. Early on, CT&C began leasing rather than selling its industrial land holdings in order to ensure high standards.

Until 1920, the company employed any acceptable architect and offered its construction work through competitive bidding to any satisfactory contractor. It performed these services and financed construction at cost for its clients. Any new business wishing to set up shop knew that it was necessary to follow the Porter image. After 1920, that generally meant using Foltz and Brand, a reputable contractor that CT&C recommended. Later, when the Foltz and Branc partnership broke up, CT&C formed its own company with F. C. Foltz as chief architect. In the late 1920s, CT&C’s own engineers, superintendents, foremen and crews could discuss relocation problems, realistically project new operating costs, furnish transportation data, custom design a building suited to a client’s needs, finance it if necessary and lease it. CT&C could even promise a manufacturer a new building, specifically designed for any client and have it ready for use in 60 days. CT&C also ran its own railroad spurs in from the Belt.

CT&C’s contractors worked only on their own turf. According to one document, the policy was adopted because, "We refuse to build on other people’s ground for a contractor’s profit. This would lead too easily to the erection of large projects such as Loop office buildings. A poor credit somewhere could bust the company. When we have good specialty business that permits us to fill a need at good profit without much risk, why compete with hungry architects and general contractors for risky business with narrow profit margins? Such policy would have the additional disadvantages of ballooning up the organization in boom times and of distracting our attention from our fundamental and profitable industrial ‘package goods’ business."

Owning such a large tract of land and devoting it only to industrial use was a novel idea at the time and CT&C was in a position to make it work. In 1915, CT&C formed the Clearing Industrial Association (CIA) to become the governing body of the industrial distract. Membership was available to all the industries located within the district and was quite popular. Whenever a street needed resurfacing or a large water supply was needed, the CIA, with backup from the CT&C, functioning essentially as their own city, would take care of it. In 1909, the district assembled its own tract and maintenance gang of 15 to 30 men. This activity was primarily supported by billings against the Belt railway at cost of labor and materials plus 10 percent for laying and maintaining all collecting tracts. CIA also repaired and maintained the streets, parkways, sewers and water systems, and performed switch track maintenance and other odd jobs for the industries. This group still operates to this day, although at a small loss. The only group who could argue with Clearing Industrial Association’s management policy was the Stickney Township government and t hey had no complaints due to the large tax base created by the industries.

Until the revision of the Illinois Business Corporation Act in 1933, title to all land and buildings was carried in a trust under the CCLA whose certificates of beneficial interest were owned by CT&C. This was necessary because the legislature, fearing that the Pullman Company might buy up too much of the state, had forbidden corporations to own real estate except to the extent necessary for their immediate corporate purposes. The name of the Chicago Transfer and Clearing Company was changed to the Clearing Industrial District in 1934 because it better suited the nature of the company that had sold the yards 22 years earlier (and, as rumor has it, was tired of answering phone calls requesting trucking service).

Financially, once the purchase of the Clearing Yards took place, the CT&C kept prospering. It was a source of pride to both the Porters that they never took a salary and that they never profited directly or indirectly from the formation or operations of the company except to the extend that their actual cash investment entitled them.

The company had a surplus in 1912 of $975,000. This came entirely from interest on the cost of construction paid by the Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad in connection with the purchase of the yard. This surplus remained virtually stationary until 1926 when it increased by $500,000 due to the bulk sale of 300 acres to F. H. Bartlett & Co. Surplus increased steadily from $1,609,000 in 1926 to $2,350,000 by 1931. Here it remained relatively stationary until 1937. It increased again to $3,053,000 by 1945.

The deep soil of Illinois is one of the best places on Earth to grow corn, the miracle grain given to the work by Native Americans. The continental divide between East and West, North and South, provided an equally fertile environment for industry. Sooner or later, some one would put the two together.

That man was E.T. Bedford, a director of the Standard Oil Company. In 1906, he and his son, Fred, were looking for a place to build a corn milling plant for their new glucose business. The Corn Products Refining Company. Ideally, it would be near good transportation for materials and products, have room for expansion, and provide a readily available supply of corn, coal, sulfur and water. It would need street cars and interurbans to bring employees to the plant. They decided the perfect spot was just southwest of Chicago, near the Clearing Yards.

They purchased 100 acres from CT&C for $250 an acre. The plant was constructed in four units, each one able to grind 15,000 bushels of corn per day. The first one was completed in the spring of 1910. The second was up and going by 1912. The third was completed not long after the second, and by 1916 all four units were operational.

The plan consisted of low profile buildings set as some distance from each other with large tunnels connecting them to transport materials and to house the piping. In the event of a fire or an explosion, undamaged units could keep producing. The plan also allowed for expansion without disturbing the flow of the process.

Bedford’s goal was excellence. In 1908, as he looked over this site, he said, "This is to be the best plant in the world. It will give the customer that to which he is entitled—better quality, better service, and a better price! We must do this better than anyone else and we need not fear the competition!" This was to become the motto of the Corn Products Refining Company.

The Corn Products Refining Company continued to grow, bringing other companies the umbrella of the CPC name. At times, if a supplier became undependable, CPC would buy it up to guarantee the source of a needed service. In this way CPC acquired the Crystal Car Line and Hummel and Downing Box Making Co., (which was sold later). CPC also formed the Corn Products Sales Company in 1921 to sell its own products instead of using brokers.

The companies under the CPC name continued to grow, especially with the acquisition of Best Goods in 1958, a major company in consumer products. CPC’s own brands—Mazola, Argo Corn Starch and Karo—were now joined by such other major brands as Hellman’s and Skippy, which balanced the industrial business with consumer products. A variety of consumer products now provide the major portion of the company’s business.

As the company expanded, E.T. Bedford realized that there needed to be affordable housing in the area for his employees. The railroad depot was over a mile to the north. In Summit, the Joliet-Lyons trolley helped, as did the Archer Avenue trolley from the city. But any route to the plant was time consuming. The long ride, coupled with long working hours, discouraged potential employees. The original answer had been barrack housing. As early as 1911, CCLA began to develop single family homes in the Corn Products Subdivision. The little unincorporated area became known as Argo from the Argo Corn Starch that was one of the plant’s main products. Argo was annexed by the Village of Summit on October 2, 1911.

However, Argo was still not the answer for the Corn Products Refining Company’s labor supply. One significant problem came in part from the insular nature of the community. With the workers unable to get away from the plant and its environs conveniently, grievances turned into strikes, lockouts and even riots. Management and labor had a hard time living together harmoniously.

In 1919, George M. Moffet of the CPC purchased land from the CCLA for a management housing project just south of the CPC plant. This new settlement consisted of pleasant single family homes laid out in a residential suburb of two streets. The location was perfect, divided from Argo by a railroad right-of-way and a couple of blocks of open prairie. Still, the plant was easily accessible. Utilities would be provided by the plant.

As time passed, the Argo section of Summit grew diversified so that its economy no longer depended solely on the CPC plant. Better transportation routes opened up on the labor market. As a result, management-labor friction lessened. The area now known as Bedford Park, in honor of the company president, no longer had to be a management community for CPC. Even so, by tradition it would remain tied to the company.

In 1929, the Bedford Park Improvement Club was formed to run the settlement, with Paul Bishop as its first president. Regular elections were held and local issues discussed, but there was still no fire or police department. The men of Bedford Park formed their own minuteman brigade and took turns patrolling the two streets of Bedford Park and depended on the CPC plant for water and a fire department.

Throughout the 1930s, little changed. Then, in early 1940, the Bedford settlement incorporated itself into the Village of Bedford Park, including the land holdings of the Corn Products Refining Company. This singular action was not particularly noticed by the surrounding areas which had been advancing at a rapid pace and could spare little interest in the two-block town and the CPC property which accompanied it. What did draw attention was the announcement on August 18, 1940, that the Village of Bedford Park had annexed the lands of CID’s 65^th Street Industrial District as well as those of the Belt Railway’s Clearing Yards.

The Clearing Industrial District had for some time been fighting attempts of surrounding villages to incorporate bits and pieces of this industrial giant. (By 1936, there were 111 manufacturing plants and warehouses and room for expansion.) As the Clearing Industrial District, as well as the Clearing Industrial Association, saw it, if such a move were allowed, the entire district would be gobbled up piece by piece and all the hard work of creating a unified district would be wasted. So when the Village of Bedford Park annexed the whole area in one bit, there was no argument from the district or association and Bedford Park was on the map.

Bedford Park’s residential community continued to grow with the incorporation of the village and soon included 66^th Street, then 65^th Street. In addition to the original frame houses, brick homes became the style in the 1940s and dominated later construction. According to a 1980 article in the Chicago Tribune, Bedford Park is "better than 95 percent industrial, and its 200 homes are in a four-block area." According to the same article, "The village tax rate last year (1979) was only 80 cents per $100 of assessed value. Total assessed value was around $230 million.

With the entire area annexed, the Clearing Industrial District could safely turn its focus from running its private municipality to building additional industry in the area. CID purchased 80 acres of land on the north side of 51^st  Street, west of Central, to begin a new industrial district. This new district was still located in Stickney Township with easy access from Archer Avenue.

Land was leveled, underground utilities were placed, streets laid and the foundations for National Can, Ace Carton and Diamond T Motor Car were poured. Experience at the 65^th Street tract paid off and the new district was soon humming with industry. In the early 1940s the cinder path grandly called Central Avenue was upgraded into a four-lane road joining the two districts. Once this operation was successful, in 1947, the CID turned its eyes north to a new project in Melrose Park bounded by North Avenue and Armitage, 27^th Avenue and Mannheim. Then came another between Fullerton and Grand, east of 25^th Avenue, followed in 1951 by a new district in Franklin Park.

Having been created from the swamps and cornfields by a series of explorers, businessmen and community leaders gifted with unusual vision, Bedford Park and the Clearing Industrial District have achieved a high point in the development of the Midwest where community life and industry can amicably prosper in partnership.