Photo gallery: A history of Rolling Meadows

1958: Rolling Meadows shopping center has 18 units with the potential for 21. The largest building was the Crawford department store. There is parking space for 1,300 cars, and it cost about $2.5 million to build.

1958: A flagpole identifies Rolling Meadows’ city hall and police headquarters. Since the first home was occupied in November 1953, the city grew to a population of nearly 9,000. Rolling Meadows was incorporated as a city in 1954. Officials were proud of the city’s organization in four years.

1962: A new water tank in Rolling Meadows has been embellished by prankster students from Arlington Heights High School. All Rolling Meadows students attended high school in Arlington Heights. It was a problem to keep them from climbing the water tanks and decorating them with various slogans and pictures. The police tried to apprehend them for about five years with no luck.

1966: A 200-foot concrete block wall of an industrial plant was smashed when a tornado swooped through the Rolling Meadows area. Winds caused widespread power failures and disrupted communications for many hours in the city, as well as through Hoffman Estates, Arlington Heights and Mount Prospect. Total damage throughout the north suburbs was estimated at $3 to $5 million.

1970: The oldest church in the city, the Community Church of Rolling Meadows, 2720 Kirchoff Road, is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a rededication. Its pastor, The Rev. William H. Herman, presided over the new sanctuary, finished in 1965. The church served more than 500 families at the time, and is still active today.

1970: A firefighter surveys the damage after a fire at the Three Fountains apartment complex in Rolling Meadows. The fire was believed to have started inside one of the apartments, and damage is estimated at $500,000.

1970: Salt Creek in Rolling Meadows overran its banks due to heavy rains the previous few days. The creek, normally 6 to 10 feet wide, turned the parks into lakes.

1970: The village of Rolling Meadows purchased three Mercedes Benz garbage trucks to service the village. Each truck cost $23,000.

1970: The Campbell Avenue bridge over Salt Creek in Rolling Meadows is being demolished so a new and wider bridge can be built. The amount of possible water flow under the bridge was also being increased to prevent flooding after heavy rainstorms.

1979: The streets of Rolling Meadows and other suburbs were covered by a layer of snow, making life a little more miserable for motorists.

1988: The construction site of the Third Municipal Cook County Courthouse at 2121 Euclid Ave. in Rolling Meadows.

1989: Paul Vasis owns the Plaza Lane restaurant, a popular spot for socializing in Rolling Meadows: “I couldn’t believe it when I moved here...I said to myself, ‘What is it with these people? They’re so friendly.’”

1991: Rolling Meadows Police Commander Tim Lonergan works with students at the Police Neighborhood Resource Center.

1992: Realtor Toni O’Malley (center) goes over a checklist of possible home upgrades with Jean-Pierre Wetli and wife Sara in the living room of their Rolling Meadows home. The Wetlis planned to sell their home in the near future.

1994: Sandy Demovsky (left) and Edie Cichowski, mother of a student who died in a drunk driving accident in 1992, attend the dedication of a memorial garden to students and teachers at Rolling Meadows High School. The idea for the garden arose when four students died in one year. The words of Lori Anderson, a student who died in a car accident in 1992 are set in a stone in the garden: “Love isn’t shown through tears, but through the memories that hold together a lost life.”

1996: A police officer investigates the crime scene at Plum Grove Liquors after a woman working there was fatally shot. The robbery occurred shortly after the store opened. Police suspected a robbery gone awry, since nothing was taken from the store. The incident was one of four in the northwest suburbs in 24 hours, including a robbery just minutes later, five miles away in Schaumburg.