The year 1974 saw a new restaurant come to Hanover Park. The restaurant was Sambo's and it was located at 1266 Irving Park Road. Sambo's was a chain diner that specialized in breakfasts. It was a successful location for the restaurant until 1982.

Due to the controversy over the name and the images used by the chain, all of the Sambo's locations, except for the original in Santa Barbara, CA, closed in 1982. This location eventually changed its name to Sam's Place but only existed as such for a "very short time" as blog reader, Ron Gliot stated.

The restaurant sat vacant and, according to an article in the August 18, 1982 issue of the Daily Herald, the Schaumburg Township District Library looked into using the building as a possible branch. The price, however, was too high for a branch library at the time.

By January 1983 ads began appearing in the Daily Herald for MaryGold's Restaurant at this location. This was a small midwestern diner chain that served breakfast, lunch and dinner. Other locations could be found in Lake Zurich and Bloomingdale. Unfortunately, it, too, lasted for only a short time--about a year and a half.

The next restaurant to appear at the location was Dynasty Restaurant. Ads beginning in September 1984 showed that it was also a diner featuring breakfast, lunch and dinner. Management must have struggled because ads the following year can be found through May and June of 1985 detailing that the restaurant was now under new management.

That iteration apparently didn't flourish either because, by October 11, 1985, the establishment had once again undergone a name change and was now called Lambert's Family Restaurant. Once again, daily breakfast, lunch and dinner specials were featured in the ad. Nothing additional can be found after January 5, 1986.

By March 17, 1987, the location had gone in a completely different direction and was now known as Fancy Colours. They sold paint, wallcoverings and window fashions. Other branches could be found in Rolling Meadows and Elgin. The business lasted until late 1989.

After a couple of years sitting vacant, the building was reopened as another restaurant. This time, though, it was far from a diner. Cau Mac's Crab House took the plunge in the late summer of 1991 and stayed open until sometime around 1995.

That was the end of life for this establishment. From that time on, until the Schaumburg Township District Library once again came knocking, 1226 Irving Park Road did not see any use.

The library bought the property and, at first, thought to renovate the building for a new Hanover Park Branch because they had outgrown their site in the strip mall in the outlot of the Tradewinds Shopping Center. That decision, though, was modified and, in April 2005, the library put out an Invitation to Bid for the demolition of the building. Once the bid was accepted, demolition and construction began.

On August 24, 2006, the Hanover Park Branch Library opened for business. It has now been 15 years that the library has operated in that location. We consider it a win/win for the library and Hanover Park.

If you ever ate at or worked in any of the restaurants or businesses that were at this location, please fill out a comment or send an email. We'd all be interested in hearing your portion of our local history!

Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian
Schaumburg Township District Library
jrozek@stdl.org