Welcome to Orchard Hill!

This is a blog dedicated to our old family farm in the South Chicago suburbs of Cook County, IL.

A Short History of Orchard Hill

This farm was built by German immigrants, specifically the Vogt family, circa 1837. The Vogts were prominent in nearby Tinley Park, which was then known as Bremen. The house, barn, summer kitchen and several out buildings date back to that era.

Our family bought the property in 1943 at a tax sale, and moved here from Hyde Park in Chicago. There was no plumbing or electricity, and they brought the old buildings up to more modern specs.

Orchard Hill Farm School was my mother Natalie's project, and it ran from 1947 until 2005. I estimate that there are over 5,000 alumni of the school, and nearly all (myself included) have fond memories of the amazing school that operated here on the farm.

Being in the shadow of urban Chicago, it was inevitable that progress would come to the quiet neighborhood that Orchard Hill is a part of. The old Indian Boundary Line nearby became Bremen Highway (a two-lane paved road), and then Interstate 57. The traffic noise is constant, and makes conversation outdoors difficult. Villages and cities pressed closer and closer, and my family's ten acres was whittled down to 6.4 when part of the front pasture was condemned for a frontage road.

Then came the annexation. Nearby Oak Forest decided that our property should be included in their "Master Plan" and announced a forced annexation. We and our neighbors fought it, and with legal hep we where able to come to an agreement with the city of Oak Forest. We would both (the city and neighbors) look for a suitable developer for the 40 acres that included Orchard Hill. Oak Forest would give tax breaks to make the deal attractive, and we would make enough to be satisfied with the outcome.

All went well for a time. Oak Forest's Mayor Gordon was cooperative, and we found a buyer for the property - Arcon Development. Contracts were drawn up, and signed by the land owners, including us.

Then Oak Forest elected a new mayor, JoAnne Kelly. She soon started breaking the terms of our contract, and Arcon pulled out of the deal. We, and the other landowners of our 40 acre parcel, waited for the expiration of the two-year contract that we had with Oak Forest, and hoped to negotiate another deal on more favorable terms, perhaps with another bordering town.

Soon after the contract expired, Oak Forest forced another annexation under rather shady circumstances. We landowners were not informed, but rather notices were posted in the legal section of local newspapers. Who reads these things? As a direct result of this action, state law has been changed to require notice to landowners of pending annexation, rather than doing it under the dark of night.

Currently, the legality of the annexation is being considered in the courts of Illinois. At the time of this writing, Cook County ruled in favor of Oak Forest, and the case is under appeal by the state Appellate Court.

Meanwhile, Oak Forest has ruled through its building code inspector that all nine buildings at Orchard Hill must be demolished, effectively ending the Historic Farm. Our current farm operations would have to cease, because of lack of housing for equipment, farm animals, utilities, water, etc. and the old 1837 barn and other buildings would have to be scrapped needlessly. We don't meet the current city building codes, it seems, and astonishingly they refuse to grant us Historic status for our ancient buildings, which would exempt us from their modern codes. Why?

Needless to say, this is unacceptable to us. We hope you can join us in our fight to save the family farm until a resolution can be found.

Please join us in our fight to save our family farm. Perhaps they want to confiscate our property through a lien on our buildings as "unsafe". Perhaps they want us to incur the expense of demolition so they don't have to when they eventually confiscate our property. Or they could have another hidden agenda. Who knows?

But that's the story so far. We are under order to demolish all buildings by August 31, with no extensions. We're talking to legal council, but there are no guarantees.

Hope and prayers appreciated!

- Leslie Johnson