Flossmoor Station (Now Flossmoor Station Restaurant and Brewery)
Introduction
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Beginning as a 1906 Train Station, built by the Illinois Central Railroad, it is now a brewery and restaurant. When built, there were only six homes in the community of Flossmoor. Not uncommon for suburbs surrounding Chicago (as was the case in many cities around the Turn of the Century), the area was a weekend and summer getaway for the middle class, who lived and worked in the city, but had the means to get away -- leisure time. As time went on, the popularity of the Flossmoor Station and the city’s existence as a city getaway waned. Dean and Carolyn Armstrong found the building in disrepair, so they invested in it and reopened it as Flossmoor Station Restaurant & Brewery in 1996. Trains still roll by outside the station, and the walls of the place are adorned with historical photos - the place serves as an ipso facto museum.
Images
Backstory and Context
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Although it operates as a successful service industry focused business today, it represents the changing nature of economics from the early 1900s to the early 2000s; from industry to service. Many people today live in Flossmoor and nearby Homewood and travel to Chicago for work, rather than live in the city and travel to Flossmoor for leisure. One visit to the brewery can provide insight into the entire history.
Sources
2 John H. Long, "Flossmoor, IL," Encyclopedia of Chicago, chicagohistory.org, last accessed February 24, 2017, http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/462.html
3 Ibid.,
4 "About Us," Flossmoor Station Brewing Company Website, last accessed February 24, 2017,