When we were still relatively new to Woodstock, my friend Kathy and I had regular phone conversations on the subject of sportcoats. “Do you have the size 8 (or 10, or 12)?” one of us would ask the other. Between us, we had five boys and three navy blue sportcoats that passed freely from Pleasant […]
“I fell flat on my face,” is Madeline Lauf’s candid assessment of what happened when her company, Begin Health, put its first product on the market. Her version of kids’ milk with an added prebiotic, aimed at improving children’s digestive health, did not attract investors. “I ran out of money and had to fire my […]
The weeks after Thanksgiving and Christmas tend to be a hibernation period for businesses. Coinciding with the groundhog poking his head out of his underground burrow, some new and longtime Woodstock businesses are popping up as January slides into February. ALDI to open this week Just 18 months after the announcement that Aldi Food Store […]
On a recent frigid Wednesday afternoon, Marengo resident Laurie Matchiesen bought a ticket to see the Kurt Warner biopic “American Underdog” at Classic Cinemas in Woodstock. “I saw ‘Spider-Man’ already,” said Matchiesen, who has been to three movies since theaters reopened in April. She has plenty of company. According to Variety, “Spider-man: No Way Home” […]
Woodstock women who have celebrated their silver or golden wedding anniversaries might tell how they shopped at Hogan’s on Benton Street, Lady’s Choice in the Harding Real Estate complex on Route 47, or Englehardt Bridal on Throop Street for their wedding dressers. But most brides-to-be living in Woodstock in the past 25 years have had […]
When Keefe Real Estate opened a Woodstock office on Catalpa Lane in 2018, anyone who had spent a summer’s day in Lake Geneva, Wis., was familiar with the name. The dominant brokerage in residential sales in Walworth, Racine, and Kenosha counties for more than four decades announced in November that it was joining Compass, a […]
When Illinois allowed nonessential businesses to reopen in late May 2020, local real estate agents were stunned to see the real estate market ignite, fueled by working-from-home buyers who wanted more space, a more practical layout, and train line access to offices to which they were commuting irregularly – if at all. Interest rates that […]
To drivers who regularly traverse Woodstock on Lake Avenue, the pace of construction at the new 20,500-square-foot Aldi at the southwest corner of Lake Avenue and American Way has been a marvel. Even as supply chain disruptions and hiring woes have plagued projects nationally, property developer Kensington Partners has kept the Aldi project on schedule. […]
Just as COVID-19 has its variants, the cumulative effect of the virus had a varied impact on sectors of the local economy during the past year. Roaring along For those who live in the 60098 ZIP code, 2021 was a good year to be a real estate agent or a home seller. Through Dec. 21, […]
What is now the Michling Plaza & Associates building at 101 N. Throop St. began life as a one-story midcentury office building, once occupied by the McHenry County Title Co. When the building got a second-floor addition in the late 1970s or early ’80s, the result must have seemed terribly up-to-date. But as time marches […]
Larry Lough is editor of The Independent and reports local news.
Janet Dovidio has been a freelance correspondent for The Independent for eight years.
Susan W. Murray wrote for The Independent, covering various beats, from 2005 to 2008.
Tricia Carzoli is a freelance writer and photographer that on community news.
