Historic Tidbits About Route 47 in Huntley

Huntley celebrated the new and improved Route 47 with a ribbon cutting Tuesday while remembering what life was like back when the roadway was first built.

Huntley officials asked residents for their recollections about that time. The village provided the following tidbits in a program for Tuesday’s event:

• Elsie Hoy cut the ribbon for the Route 47 opening in 1936. Her father, Phil Heuer, was the mayor.

• Jim Weltzien lived on the corner of Main and Route 47 and recalls the way to Woodstock was a dirt path. There was no route directly through town from north to south. Travelers from the south had to enter town using Dean Street passing the cemetery and go north on Church Street, cut over to Woodstock Street (which got its name because it was on the way to the town) and take the first short block of North Street to the dirt path that went to Woodstock. The area south of Main Street was covered to large extent with the Donohue Woods.

• George Drendel and Marion Zarndt recall that the north end of Route 47 was built first. George remembers a large barricade and sign that was placed at the intersection of Route 47 and Main announcing “The end of Route 47.” Marion recalls that the kids would come out at night and roller skate on the new concrete after the workers were gone.

• Vera Rasmussen recalls sitting in the backyard of Henry Garlieb’s home on Woodstock Street and watching the workers pour concrete.

• Dick Enstrom recalls that workers parked their equipment each night by the depot that was located between Main and Mill streets.

• Tom Conley Sr. and Walt Weltzien hauled fill for Route 47’s base. They worked in shifts from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The fill was picked up from railroad cars pulled off on a siding near the depot. Roy Miller had a steam shovel to fill their International C Cap trucks. The fill materials were quarried stone.