Our Story
The Moment It Began
For years, my wife and I would be at different places asking the same question: "What used to be here?" We'd talk about places like Mad Cats in Palatine. We knew it used to be Macs on Slade, and before that, Mint Julep.
One day at a hotel, we tried to Google "Mint Julep Palatine." Nothing came up. No dates, no details, nothing. I tried ChatGPT. Still nothing. The Palatine Historical Society had bits and pieces, but there wasn't a complete picture anywhere.
I'd been talking about this with friends for years—"somebody should build an app for this." Then one of my friends said, "I could have used your app the other day." That was it. Fine. Nobody else built it, so I will.
From Idea to Reality
I started small. One building. One block. Downtown Palatine is my testing ground. I'm digging through old city directories from the 1950s, searching newspaper archives, and talking to people who've lived here for decades—the ones who actually remember when things looked different.
The first version is basic. A simple map with pins. Click a location, see what used to be there. But it works. And when I show it to people, they get it. They want to add their own memories, their own photos. That's the vision—not just what I can research alone, but what the community wants to preserve.
What I'm Building: A platform where people can share stories I'd never find on my own. Photos from attics. Memories about which families owned which stores. Details that aren't in any city directory. Right now, I'm laying the foundation. Getting Palatine documented. Building the tools. Then opening it up for others to contribute what they remember.
Building the Platform
As I'm building this out, certain features are becoming essential. The timeline slider lets you drag from 1850 to today and watch the town transform. People love that—seeing which businesses existed during any decade, watching downtown evolve.
The contribution tools are live now. People can add what they know—locations, businesses, photos, and stories. I can't research every location myself. The knowledge is out there in the community, and now they have the tools to share it. That's when this really scales.
Photos are critical. Historical images bring these places to life in ways text can't. I've made photo uploads central to the platform—visual time capsules showing how places actually looked across different eras.
And it works on mobile. History shouldn't require sitting at a desk. You can explore while actually standing at these locations—creating that connection between past and present.
Growing Beyond Palatine
The vision isn't just Palatine. Every town has this history. But I'm perfecting it here first. Getting Palatine right. Building the infrastructure. Working out the bugs. Proving the concept.
The system I'm building can scale—handle multiple cities, prevent duplicates, maintain quality. But rushing nationwide before Palatine is solid would be a mistake. Once I nail it here, other towns can follow the same model.
That's the long-term goal: a comprehensive national resource where every community can preserve its history. But it starts with getting our town right.
What I'm Learning
History disappears faster than you'd think. Even as I'm building this, I'm realizing how urgent it is. People who remember the 1950s and 60s are getting older. Once they're gone, those memories go with them. Every year of delay means information lost forever.
I'm also learning I can't do this alone. The knowledge is scattered—in people's memories, their photo albums, old city directories. I can research what's in the archives, but the real stories come from people who were actually there. That's why the contribution tools matter.
And it has to be accessible. If this information stays locked in archives or costs money to access, most people won't use it. Making it free and easy to navigate is what turns it from a research tool into something people actually explore.
The details matter more than I expected. It's not just "there was a pharmacy here." It's "Smith's Pharmacy operated 1952-1987, Mr. Smith knew every customer by name, kids bought penny candy after school." Those specifics are what make history real.
The Future Vision
Long-term, I want this to be something people use casually—a 10-20 second habit when they go to dinner. You walk into a restaurant you've never been to, open the app, and discover it used to be a bowling alley in the 1920s. Quick. Fun. Interesting.
I'm thinking about AR features down the road. Imagine walking into MP Tap House in Mount Prospect and the app says, "Walk toward the bathroom, look left—you'll see an old bowling pin setter from when this was a bowling alley." That level of location-aware storytelling would be incredible.
And I see it becoming a discovery tool for travelers. Instead of just checking Yelp for the best restaurant, you could use When It Was to find the most historic building to eat at. Not the best food—the most interesting story.
Why This Matters
I'm not a history buff. I don't really care about World War I or World War II. But the history of the buildings we walk in and out of every day? The bar you went to when you were 21. The drugstore your grandfather told you about. That matters. That's personal history.
And it's disappearing. People who remember the 1950s and 60s are getting older. Once they're gone, their memories go with them. If we don't document this now—the businesses, the stories, the photos sitting in attics—it's lost forever.
That's why I'm building this. Not to create some comprehensive academic archive. Just to answer a simple question: "What used to be here?" And to make sure the answers survive.
Want to Help? If you remember old Palatine businesses, I need you. If you have old photos, upload them. If you just like exploring local history, use the map and spread the word. Right now, I'm building the foundation. The more people who contribute what they know, the better this becomes.