Check out these unique destinations that reflect the genuine character of our region.
Pepper Road & Friends
Ten locations around Pepper Road and greater Barrington, pepperroadandfriends.com
This alliance of 10 area shop owners draws together a wide range of services and products, including an impressive array of resale furnishings, jewelry, clothing and handmade items.
The group began in 2015 when Lori O’Callaghan, owner of Junk Warehouse, invited fellow shop owners to help create a flea market in her store’s parking lot at 22049 N. Pepper Road.
Her fellow collaborators rallied around a name that reflected the location of several member shops: an industrial neighborhood centered around Pepper Road, in Lake Barrington.
After a successful spring market in 2015, the group of women continued working together by hosting events and special promotions throughout the year.
“We all sell different things and offer different services, so by working together and promoting one another in a positive light, we are all increasing each other’s business,” O’Callaghan says.
Members of Pepper Road and Friends host events every two months, in addition to an annual flea market, shopping tours and holiday open houses. The shop owners hold these events to create excitement, while keeping their customer’s wants and desires in the forefront.
The 10 shops that comprise the group are Tattered Tiques, Junk Warehouse, Spruce, Creative Resale, Julia & Friends…at home, Lake Barrington Resale 4 Less, The Winterberry Companies, The Pink Geranium & Co., Steeplechase Antiques and The English Daisy.
Information for each shop can be found on the Pepper Road and Friends website.
Rogers Hall Apartments
730 N. Seminary Ave., Woodstock
Woodstock’s role in the 1993 film “Groundhog Day” isn’t the city’s first brush with Hollywood fame. One of Woodstock’s own was an early legend of the silver screen.
Shortly after his mother’s death in 1926, 11-year-old Orson Welles enrolled at Woodstock’s Todd School for Boys, a school once located at what’s now the northeast corner of Illinois Routes 47 and 120. As a schoolboy, Welles became absorbed by the theater and made some of his earliest performances on Todd’s stage.
He also appeared at the Woodstock Opera House, where he debuted as a professional theater director. Welles graduated from Todd School in 1934 and eventually became a legendary actor, producer and director of films such as “Citizen Kane,” and the radio drama “War of the Worlds.”
Welles, who was born in Kenosha in 1915, periodically returned to Woodstock before his death in 1985.
Other famous alumni who attended Todd School include Welles’ oldest daughter, actress Christopher Welles; theatre director Robert Wilson; cartoonist Gahan Wilson and financial writer Joseph Granville.
Rogers Hall is the only remaining part of the Todd School campus. The former classroom building is now a privately owned apartment complex. Trespassing is discouraged.
Lily Lake Cemetery
6N511 Illinois Route 47, Lily Lake
This tiny rural cemetery bears a long legacy of veterans encompassing nearly every major American war – including the Revolution.
A 30-foot obelisk monument marks the spot where Corporal Abner Powers was laid to rest in Lily Lake. The structure was unveiled on July 4, 1902, exactly 50 years after Powers died.
Members of Aurora Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Post 20, three companies of militia, Civil War veterans and hundreds of private citizens attended the unveiling and formed an overwhelming procession of about 30,000 people.
Powers enlisted in the 1st Hampshire Regiment when he was 15 years old and participated in a number of significant episodes, including the Battle of Bennington, the Battle of Saratoga, the winter at Valley Forge and the war-ending Battle of Yorktown.
After the war, the Vermont native lived variously in New Hampshire, New York and Canada, eventually settling in Kane County in the early 1840s. He died in 1852 at the age of 91. His son, who reportedly served in the War of 1812, was buried by his side. Abner’s original grave had become neglected when locals began a campaign in 1901 to commemorate the veteran.
The only plot within the village of Lily Lake, this cemetery is one of the oldest burial grounds in the county and is currently managed by a volunteer group that collects donations for the upkeep of the grounds.