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The first automobile (a red Franklin) came to Glen Ellyn in 1903. Prior to that, and for a num-ber of years thereafter, horse power of the four-legged sort was the primary mode of transportation in town for those who didn’t choose to walk.

When groups of people wanted to travel together they often used the Glen Ellyn Bus provided by Nadelhoffer’s livery. The Nadel-hoffer Livery Stable was built in 1898 on Crescent Boulevard across from the train station, where it stood until the 1920s when it was torn down to make way for the Glen Theatre building. The Glen Ellyn Bus was a horse-drawn wagon with padded seats and a roof. It enjoyed considerable notoriety in town, acquiring the nickname “Black Maria” because it resembled a Chicago police vehicle with that name.

In her history of Glen Ellyn published in 1928, Ada Douglas Harmon provided a delightful description of “Black Maria” and what it was like to use this conveyance:

“It was a black and melancholy vehicle, but when it was filled with a crowd of lively women off for a lark of some kind it was changed into a load of fun. We did not lack for excitement either when riding in it, for often the driver would be drunk and any minute we might expect to be dumped into a wayside ditch.

“One day we were to attend the old settlers’ picnic at Blooming-dale, and we were all dressed in our best summer clothes. The bus had just been washed on the

inside. It had leather straps hold-

ing the cushions in place and these did not dry quickly. The ladies whose fate it was to sit on those places were a sight to behold, for when we arrived at the picnic, their nice white skirts were striped with red and black and green. One of them, a dainty little bride, was the most resplendent of all the unfortunates in her decorations. The worst of it was these stripes were indelible, so Black Maria left her imprint on the minds and memories, not to mention the tempers, of her fair patrons.”

History didn’t record the fate of Black Maria but it probably went the way of most things associated with the buggy whip when the automobile established itself as the new way to get around town. Perhaps the Glen Ellyn Historical Society will create a replica for a Fourth of July parade one of these summers.

The “Glen Ellyn Bus” was an important means of transportation in the Village in the early 1900s. Nicknamed the “Black Maria” after a Chicago paddy wagon of that name, it was an integral part of Village life, carrying brides and grooms to the church, pall bearers to the cemetery and picnic parties to the park.