From No Man's Land to Plaza del Lago

by Robert Shea

A history of Wilmette, Illinois. 9x10" oblong, 95 pp, b&w photographs.

95 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1987

About the author

Robert Joseph Shea was a novelist and journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy Illuminatus!. It became a cult success and was later turned into a marathon-length stage show put on at the British National Theatre and elsewhere. In 1986 it won the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. Shea went on to write several action novels based in exotic historical settings.

Reviews

[Dan E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is there anything more American than a book recounting the history of a strip mall? There used to be a patch of land on Chicago’s tony North Shore called No Man’s Land where there were supposedly raucous gambling dens and Prohibition-era saloons. Did I learn much about those place through reading this book? Not really. It was mostly about the ownership of this patch of land and how it was originally settled by the Ouilmette family, then sold to a mysterious widow, and finally parceled out to a list of shucksters and speculators who did their best to create low (or no) -tax restaurants, gas stations, hotels, clubs, etc. I found the read mostly enjoyable for what it was, a surface level primer about a strange, ephemeral part of suburban Chicago’s past.

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book on the history of the Plaza del Lago area in the town Wilmette IL The famous 1920 shopping center, the clubs that once stood, ,the depression and fire that took them away, and The former "honky tonk town of the north shore", the theater, and the how high rises which now stand came around. This is all about the place that once was "No Man's Land".