Maywood - IL - Images of America Author:Douglas Deuchler Ten miles west of Chicago on the west bank of the Des Plaines River sits Maywood, a village that was founded in 1869 by seven New England businessmen who established the Maywood Land Company. This prairie community, carefully laid out along the railroad, experienced a population boom after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Soon industry arrived, f... more »ollowed by a variety of ethnic groups. Maywood was one of the few early suburban communities with an African-American neighborhood. The character of this singular suburb is preserved and celebrated here.« less