As anyone who has lived in Naperville for any length of time knows, Naperville loves a parade. In fact, there’s a downtown mural dedicated to that very idea. This photo captures a scene from the Naperville Home Coming parade held in June 1917. According to Naper Settlement, the four-day event was organized to salute the town’s accomplishments since its incorporation 60 years earlier. Alas, as the Settlement noted in an online account, it ended up being a bittersweet gathering as it also “served as a farewell to those young men going off” to fight in World War I, which the United States had entered just two months earlier.
The Way We Were: Naperville loves a parade — true now, and true 108 years ago
