Hidden in Plain Sight

Before Somme Woods, the Edens Spur, and Deerbrook Mall, one of the area’s earliest known permanent settlers called Northbrook his home.

In 1836, John Kinzie Clark built his home near what is now Brookside Plaza, where Max & Benny's is located today. Raised among the indigenous people of the area, he became a local legend for hunting deer and carrying his catch for miles along trails like Waukegan Road. His name among local tribes was Nominoa, meaning "Prairie Wolf." A forest preserve is named after him up north, off Waukegan Road, north of Half Day Road — Prairie Wolf Forest Preserve.

In 1865, Johann Friederich Werhane came to this country and purchased land from Clark's estate to establish a farm just south of there. At the turn of the century, his descendants established another farm on the other side of the road where the former Red Roof Inn was located. In 1921, the family sold their original property to the Cook County Forest Preserve, and it is now known as Somme Woods. The farm across the road became known as the Wayside Farm, sitting alongside the expressway, and it remained Northbrook's last working farm until 1986. The Werhane’s had farmed this land for more than a century. 

The foundation of the original Werhane family farmhouse can still be found tucked away in Somme Woods, a lasting reminder that traces of Northbrook's pioneer days are still all around us.