century, Morton Grove built a public school. A one-room "little red schoolhouse" had existed at Waukegan in Beckwith roads from 1860 until finally torn down in 1990, and the Jerusalem Lutheran pastor also operated a school. The city gained a telephone exchange in 1900, and then established a volunteer fire department in 1904. That year, considerable land in the village became forest preserve property, including the banks of the North Branch of the Chicago River (now part of the Ralph Frese Trail) and a section known as the Skokie marshes. In 1907, gas lines were installed. In 1911, North Shore Electric Light Company installed 36 street lights and the village installed a cement sidewalk along Miller's Road. The next year, water and sewer lines were completed, and the first sewerage treatment plant began operations in 1914, leading to the new Metropolitan Sanitary District Treatment Plant at Oakton Street and McCormick Road in Skokie. Morton Grove then outlawed outhouses in 1920. Meanwhile, pickle and sauerkraut plants also operated in the village from 1900 until 1915, when a pickle blight caused them to close. Morton Grove's first bank was constructed in 1912 and a theater began showing silent movies beginning in 1916. Morton Grove continued to grow and prosper as it welcomed home those who fought in World War I, and new immigrants. Village population exceeded 1000 in the 1920 census. St. Martha Catholic Church was founded in 1919 as parishioners rented what had been a tavern before Prohibition, then erected their own church in 1923. Catholics had previously traveled to St. Peter's Church in Niles Center or St. Joseph's Church in Grosse Point, which became Wilmette. From 1919 to 1932, some farmland was transformed into a small airfield north of Dempster St., and tourist flights and wing-walking continued. One of the owners, Fred Sonne, helped form the Chicago Aerial Survey Company (and was honored for his aerial photography in World War II). Hermine Sonne, who married his partner, Dick Boettcher, became the first woman in the village to fly. As the "Jazz Age" roared on, Morton Grove also became known for its night clubs and speakeasies, especially the Dells club (originally the Huscher family residence at Austin and Dempster streets, which burned down in 1934), the Lincoln Tavern (now the American Legion hall, it burned down in 1918 and was rebuilt across the street, and became a gambling casino in the