The brick streets were first laid in Downers Grove in the early 1900’s to replace dusty, dirt roads of the time. Main Street was the first street bricked in 1906; Others followed later. In 1930’s, during the Great Depression, a crew of 71 men relaid all the brick streets as part of a WPA project. Today, the Village remains one of the few in the Chicago area that have retained and restored some of their brick streets.

In the 1980’s a renewed interest resulted in a Save the Brick Streets March in 1984. Local citizen interest eventually resulted in the creation a special service area by the Village where the owners shared in some of the costs of maintaining these streets.

More recently, the brick streets were restored in 2007 by the Village.  In the same year, the Downers Grove Historical Society selected the Historic Brick Streets as the 2007 Historic Site of the Year.