Crusher Lot, Junior High West Woods, Ottoson Woods. The Shoe. The Rocks. This place, the wooded area between Ottoson Middle School and Gray Street in Arlington Heights, has a lot of names.

According to WickedLocal Arlington, the name Crusher Lot comes from the area’s original purpose: a small quarry where the town used a steam-powered stone crusher to make gravel for paving roads.

“Junior High West Woods” and “Ottoson Woods” both refer to schools that have stood by those woods: Junior High West through about the year 2000, and Ottoson Middle School now. Students cut through the lot, usually using the paved path that runs down the western side, to get from Gray Street to school.

Students have their own names for different parts of the lot: “Stairway to Heaven” for the stairs that lead up to the paved path, and “The Rocks” or “The Shoe” for the horseshoe-shaped retaining wall at the top of the stairs.

Members of the Facebook group “Proud to be from Arlington” who attended Junior High West remembered the woods and The Shoe as a relatively secluded place to hang out away from adults, somewhere the cool kids went to drink, smoke, neck, and set small fires.

“You were invited to the shoe by the cool kids. You’d never just show up there,” says group member Kim DeAngelo.

Update August 25, 2020: Some photos from this post are featured on the website Friends of the Crusher Lot. They have a great post about the history of Crusher Lot by historian Edward Gordon here if you want to learn more about the lot.