Park Forest: Looking in on "Utopia"
About a week or so ago I went to Park Forest, Illinois for a screening of Phil Rockrohr’s documentary, “Revisiting Utopia” last week. It’s about Park Forest, the suburb I wished I grew up in. I grew up in Country Club Hills: yeah, the name was comically aspirational. There were no Country Clubs in CCH — in fact, I doubt if a lot of the families I grew up with even played golf. The closest we came was my brother being a caddy at Ravisloe Country Club — but that was in nearby Homewood. In fact there were country clubs in just about every suburb in Rich Township *except* Country Club Hills. Oh, and Park Forest. Park Forest didn’t have a country club, but I didn’t need one. As Rockrohr pointed out during the post-screening Q&A, CCH was trying to follow in the footsteps of Park Forest, but I have to agree with him… nah. CCH’s developers JE Merrion and Son didn’t put as much deep planning and investment into it. Park Forest had so many things CCH didn’t have: A big public sw...
