Stonegate was conceived and named in the mid-1920s. The original plot, planned to resemble an English village, was conceived by H. Roy Berry, and the first actual building construction was started in 1928.

With only twenty-six homes in the entire area, neighbors were as much as two and three blocks apart. As a means of regular social contact, the first Stonegate Association was formed.

Stonegate Completed!

(Arlington Heights Herald, Annual Progress Edition, March 1929)

Here, in 1928, was established a restricted residential section that has been acclaimed the finest community of its kind in the middle west. With the entire development completed in the record-breaking period of seven months Stonegate – located within the corporate limits of Arlington Heights – is now one of the show places of the metropolitan area. Beautiful homes, individual in architectural design, line winding streets that provide the fashionable atmosphere of a mellowed English suburb.

Thru out Arlington Heights, homes are noticeable distinctive and substantial. There are no shacks or shanties in the entire community. The march of progress has resulted in the replacement of even those few humble frame houses that had survived until recently since the early days.

For several years immediately following 1929, Stonegate grew very little in new homes and people were faced with so many acute personal problems that the community association was inactive. In 1937 Stonegate was a community of about thirty homes, lovely winding streets, beautiful shrubs and trees and . . . weeds.

It was the weeds that promoted the reorganization of the Stonegate Association. After years of losing the battle of wild growth, the male residents of Stonegate organized to raise money to have the weeds mowed during the summer months. The official meeting place was the first building of Stonegate, the intersection of Wilshire and Northwest Highway . . . The Stonegate Tavern.

Immediately following the organization rebirth Stonegate began to grow, and gradually the character of Stonegate Association changed from a social organization to one dedicated to community and civic improvement.