Chicago Illinois Real Estate Blog

Don’t call Oswego a boom town. Village officials will tell you it is so past that. Boundary agreements with neighboring towns? Done. Updated comprehensive plan? Check. More schools? Got ‘em, in spades. New village hall? The doors opened in May.

Nor should you refer to Oswego as the next Naperville. It never will be and does not intend to be. It has, by design, kept its small-town charm, thanks in part to the Fox River that put it on the map and the 156-year-old downtown that still serves as its nexus.

Yes, Oswego’s ice factory is gone and the grain mill is shuttered. But teenagers from miles around still go to The Prom Shoppe (formerly Jacqueline’s) to buy their prom dresses. Neighbors still line up on Saturday mornings at the cash-only Oswego Family Restaurant for its Panther Skillets, named for the high school’s mascot. And the reopening of the Dari Hut ice cream shop still marks the beginning of spring.

Oswego’s village president, Brian LeClercq, a financial consultant by day, personifies his town. His Oswego roots date back six generations but he wears a white collar instead of the work shirt his farmer forefathers wore. He and his wife, Anne, who descends from the town’s founding family, the Pearces, are raising their family here, living down the street from the one-room schoolhouse (now a museum) their relatives attended and the church where they worshipped.
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