The largest city in the county of the same name, DeKalb is a university town with a lively and well preserved downtown. DeKalb came to the fore in the 1870s when resident Joseph Glidden invented modern barbed wire, teaming up with entrepreneur Isaac Ellwood. Later Glidden donated his homestead and land, which today makes up …
This village in the Chicago suburbs grew up in the late 19th century around a stop on the Chicago and Pacific Railway. People who donated the land for these railroad depots were allowed to have the depot named after them, which is how Bartlett got its name from one Luther Bartlett. Bartlett is also at …
Contiguous with its sister city, Champaign, Urbana is the tenth most populous city in Illinois outside of the Chicago area. Urbana’s history hinges on the arrival of an agricultural school that opened in 1868 and would eventually evolve into the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Physically, and in terms of the city’s culture, entertainment, demographics …
First settled by Euro-Americans almost 200 years ago, Plainfield is a village in Chicago’s Southwest Suburbs. This is a fast-growing community, with a population that has increased ten-fold to 44,000 since 1990. Yet in the center of Plainfield is an amiable downtown with preserved old buildings, adjacent parks, diverse restaurants and enticing little shops. People …
The Village of Romeoville is on the west bank of the Des Plaines River in Chicago’s Southwest Suburbs. The Des Plaines River has had a big role in the area’s history. In the 18th-century fur traders trapped beavers and stored supplies at Isle a la Cache. Then the adjacent Illinois & Michigan Canal opened up …
Culturally diverse, Carpentersville is a village on the Fox River in Chicago’s northwest suburbs. The village was founded by one Julius Angelo Carpenter (1827-1880), and the main park and gathering space in Carpentersville dates back all the way to his time. The banks of the Fox River here are lined with parks and Kane County …
By the riverfront and perched on the bluffs, Quincy is a picture perfect city next to the Mississippi River in western Illinois. In the golden age of the Mississippi steamboats this settlement was a hub for commerce and transportation. That status is impossible to ignore on Quincy’s tree lined streets, sophisticated parks and neighborhoods constellated with …
Just beyond the affluent suburbs that make up Chicago’s North Shore, Waukegan is a lakefront city that has come through a lot of regeneration since the year 2000. At the heart of this is the renovation of the wonderful Genesee Theatre, a downtown mainstay since 1927 and a key performing arts venue for the region …
In Chicago’s northwest suburbs, Elgin is a historic city filled with delightful architecture from the 19th and early 20th centuries. At that time the city was a manufacturing hub, and two beautiful Gothic Revival skyscrapers from the pre-Depression heyday command Elgin’s skyline. Holdovers from those boom days include a sprawling public park, an award-winning library …
A village on the North Shore, Skokie sits just 16 miles northwest of downtown Chicago and has a distinctive character. This is a highly diverse part of Chicagoland that was settled by a large Jewish population, including many Holocaust survivors, in the wake of World War II. Skokie continues to have a large Jewish community, …