Hudson Dealerships |  |
Hesterman Motor Sales - Glen Ellyn, IL
Hesterman Motor Sales was located at 500 Roosevelt Road (on the NW Corner of the Roosevelt Road and Main St intersection). Photo circa 1940. The building was erected specifically for the dealership, with the land having been owned by the Hesterman family for an unspecified amount of time before that. Lee Hesterman started his career at the height of the Great Depression,selling Hudsons here with his brother, John. The auto dealership was in business from 1938-1958 and sold mainly Hudsons, Packards and Studebakers. During that time, Lee served as area chairman of the National Auto Dealers Association and president of the Hudson Dealers of Greater Chicago.
Photo dates to 1940's. Note change in gas pumps compared to first photo of dealership.
This 1952 photo taken at the Chicago Automobile Show has Lee Hesterman shown in the center.
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Hesterman graduated in 1932 from Glenbard High School (now Glenbard West High School) in Glen Ellyn. He also attended Northwestern University in Evanston and North Central College in Naperville.
He served as president of the Glen Ellyn Rotary Club in 1952, the Glen Ellyn Chamber of Commerce in 1955 and was the chairman of the Glen Ellyn Historical Site Commission. In 1979, he served as director of the First Community Bank of Glen Ellyn. He also served as chairman of the Forest Hill Cemetery in Glen Ellyn, where he was laid to rest. A former Glen Ellyn Village Board trustee, he played a large role in acquiring approval to create Glen Ellyn's Village Links Golf Course. Widely known as Glen Ellyn's local historian, his memory lives on in a major collection of historic photos and other memorabilia he donated to the village.
Born in 1915, Lee W. Hesterman died on Sunday August 17, 1997 in the Wynscape Nursing Center in Wheaton at the age of 82 after a long battle with cancer. He was survived at the time by his wife, Harriet and his daughter, Susan Edwards.
Lifelong resident of Glen Ellyn, Harriet J. Hesterman was born Feb. 17, 1918, in Oak Park, and passed on Thursday, June 14, 2007 at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield at the age of 89. She was also laid to rest in Glen Ellyn's Forest Hill Cemetery.
Hesterman founded Hesterman's Bowling Inc. in 1958. The building was converted from the auto dealership/garage into the bowling alley by one of Hesterman's closest friends, architect Jerry Perkins of Glen Ellyn. Lee later sold the business in the mid-1980s, but it remained open as Hesterman Bowl until May 1999.
Unable to keep up with technology, on June 1, 1999, the Daily Herald [of Arlington Heights] reported in an article titled "After 40 years, lanes were in league of own Higher-tech bowling alleys force Hesterman to shut doors", that "Les Shields was the key man behind the scenes at Hesterman Bowl in Glen Ellyn. As the alley's mechanic for the past five years, he's the guy who made sure the pins were reset in neat triangles after every two frames. He's the one who made sure the ball returns properly spit the multicolored orbs back into patrons' hands. "When I got here, the machines were in pretty bad shape, and I got them running pretty well," Shields said. But on a recent day, Shields watched as workers from a bowling alley in Indiana carted those same ball returns out the door..." Lombard Lanes was one of the bowling alleys to receive the Hesterman equipment.
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There was a public auction at Hesterman Bowl on Wednesday, June 2, 1999 of the Hesterman Bowl equipment. Owner Don Carlson watched on as bowling balls, bowling pins, chairs, coat racks, cooking equipment - even the swinging door that separated the kitchen from the bar - was being sold to the highest bidder.
This sign is now in a soda shop at the corner of Main and Hillside.
On July 2, 1999, the newspaper reported that the Glen Ellyn board gave the Hinsbrook Bank a green light to demolish the popular Hesterman Bowl business and build a three-story, 22,500-square-foot office building featuring four drive-through banking lanes and extensive landscaping on the 1.24-acre parcel.
Suggested Links:
Chicago Tribune article: Bowling Alley Will Not Be Spared from July 02, 1999, by Laura Zahn Pohl.
Daily Herald article: Lee Hesterman, Glen Ellyn Trustee from August 20, 1997, by Gene Kuleta.
Glen Ellyn Historical Society
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Courtesy HET JetSet - All Rights Reserved.
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