The Niles Center Wall

The Niles Center Wall. An architectural preservation of Skokie's original name. , In 1888, the Village of Skokie was incorporated under its original name, Niles Centre. Around 1910, the British word, Centre, was replaced by the American revision Center. , , In 1925, local property owner Al Lies replaced the greenhouses on his family farm at 8146 Floral Ave., with a modern entertainment venue featuring billiards, bowling and miniature golf. He honored the name of the Village, by carving the name of his new business, Niles Center Recreation Rooms, into the front of the structure. Also built that year, next door to the Recreation Rooms, was the Niles Center Home Laundry, which also featured the original Village name carved into its facade. , , By the late 1930s, in an attempt to distinguish the Village from nearby Niles, as well as from its own Niles Township, community leaders and local real estate agents began lobbying for a more urbane name. In 1940, the Village agreed to conduct a contest among residents to rename Niles Center. , , The local citizenry responded with enthusiasm, suggesting more than 1,100 names, including 25 variations of Skokie, such as Skokie Lanes and Skokton. Other suggestions honored some of Skokie's founding families, including Blameusersville and Harms Park. Foreign locales such as Adelphi, Druid Park and Studgart were also submitted. The names Modernville and Futurity reflected Americans embracing a new technological age. , , The Village name change committee finally narrowed the submissions to four. The results of the final committee vote were: Skokie-15, Oaklyn-4, Ridgemoor-2, and Westridge-1. The name change from Niles Center to Skokie became effective at 12:01 am, on November 15, 1940. , , Sixty-eight years later, two blocks north of this spot, the Niles Center Home Laundry and the Niles Center Recreation Rooms building remained next door to one another in the 8100 block of Floral Ave. While Village residents made the decision in 1940 to distance themselves from their rural origins, Skokie's original name was nonetheless still celebrated on both buildings in 2008. , , The Recreation Rooms building was finally razed that year, making the Home Laundry the last structure in Skokie to bear the Niles Center name. Finally torn down in 2011, its name, chiseled in concrete and encased in the building's brick wall, is preserved here. Also added to this wall are green terra cotta tiles, which adorned the interior of the Recreation Rooms building. , , [Caption:] , After celebrating 52 years as the Village of Niles Center, the Village was renamed Skokie, a Potawatomi Native American word for "marsh."