Elgin, Illinois Elgin, Illinois Elgin Historical Museum Elgin Historical Museum Flag of Elgin, Illinois Flag Official seal of Elgin, Illinois Townships Elgin, Dundee, Rutland, Plato, Hanover Township, Cook County, Illinois Elgin (/ ld n/ ell-jin) is a town/city in Cook and Kane counties in the northern part of the U.S.
As of 2013, the town/city had a total populace of 110,145, making it the eighth-largest town/city in Illinois.
4 Elgin today Elgin National Watch Company "Father Time" logo The Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Black Hawk Indian War of 1832 led to the expulsion of the Native Americans who had settlements and burial mounds in the area, and set the stage for the beginning of Elgin.
Early Elgin accomplished fame for the butter and dairy goods it sold to the town/city of Chicago.
The dairy trade became less meaningful with the arrival of the Elgin Watch Company.
The watch factory working three generations of Elginites from the late 19th to the mid 20th century, when it was the biggest producer of fine watches in the United States (the factory ceased manufacturing in 1965 and was torn down in the summer of 1966) and the operator of the biggest watchmaking complex in the world. Today, the clocks at Chicago's Union Station still bear the Elgin name. Elgin has a long tradition of education and invention.
Elgin is home to the Elgin Academy, the earliest coeducational, non-sectarian college preliminary school west of the Allegheny Mountains.
Elgin High School boasts five navy admirals, a Nobel Prize winner, a Pulitzer Prize winner, a Tony Award winner, two Academy Award winning producers, Olympic athletes and a General Motors CEO among its alumni.
Elgin resident John Murphy invented the motorized streetsweeper in 1914 and later formed the Elgin Sweeper Corporation.
Pioneering black chemist Lloyd Hall was an Elgin native, as was the legendary marketer and car stereo pioneer Earl "Madman" Muntz and Max Adler, founder of the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, America's first planetarium. Elgin is positioned at 42 2 18 N 88 19 22 W (42.0384225, -88.3226510). According to the 2010 census, Elgin has a total region of 37.704 square miles (97.65 km2), of which 37.16 square miles (96.24 km2) (or 98.56%) is territory and 0.544 square miles (1.41 km2) (or 1.44%) is water. A momentous portion of Elgin's Asian populace is of Laotian origin.
Elgin today In 2013, Elgin ranked number one in the Chicago urbane region in new home starts, while ranking second in new home closings. Elgin's downtown has also been the center of town/city renovations and new developments.
The 10,000 square foot Rakow Branch, situated on Elgin's West Side, is LEED registered, and was designed to be expandable up to 30,000 square feet. Elgin has opened the 185,000 sq.
In 2014, Elgin instead of the Central Business District Streetscape Improvement Project and the Riverside Drive Promenade.
In the 1990s, Elgin became one of the several metros/cities in northern Illinois to host a riverboat casino.
A momentous Laotian American improve calls Elgin home. Elgin has been the sister town/city of Vientiane, the capital of Laos, since 1967.
Elgin's civic society is characterized by a large, diverse , and effective group of grassroots organizations, a sense of improve pride and a spirit of volunteerism and participation.
In recognition of this, for the second time, Elgin won the National Civic League's prestigious All-America City Award in 2002.
Elgin was chartered as a town/city by the State of Illinois in 1854, and 100 years later became the first town/city in Illinois to adopt a council-manager form of government.
As a result of the 2010 census placing Elgin at 108,000 residents, two additional council seats will be propel in 2013, bringing the council to eight at-large members.
Elgin's current mayor and town/city manager are Dave Kaptain and Rick Kozal, in the order given.
Elgin includes portions of Hanover Township in Cook County and Elgin Township, Plato Township, Rutland Township, Dundee Township, and Campton Township in Kane County.
Elgin Township is governed by a supervisor (Annette Miller), highway commissioner (Rick Burnidge), clerk (Laura Wallett) and four trustees (Randy Endean, J.
Elgin Fire Department has 133 sworn firefighters, and 7 fire stations with plans to grew as the town/city grows.
Elgin is home to the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, one of the finest orchestras in Illinois, and a major option for live symphonic music in Chicago's Northwest suburbs.
Other classical music groups include the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra - the only youth symphony ever invited to Ravinia, the Elgin Master Chorale, and the Elgin Children's Chorus.
Theatre groups include the Janus Theatre Company, Elgin Theatre Company, Children's Theatre of Elgin, Fox Valley Youth Theatre, and Nothing Special Productions.
Together, The Hemmens Cultural Center and Elgin Community College's Visual & Performing Arts Center host dozens of performances a year by performers ranging from Chicago's Hubbard Street Dance Company to comedian Bill Maher.
After losing many landmark businesses in the 1980s, downtown Elgin experienced a renaissance in the 1990s with the arrival of the Grand Victoria riverboat casino and enhancement in the small-town economy.
Elgin's town/city parks include 112-acre (45 ha) Lords Park, which features the Elgin Public Museum and a herd of American bison, and 121-acre (49 ha) Wing Park, which includes a golf course.
Other golf courses inside Elgin include the Highlands of Elgin, the Elgin Country Club, and Bowes Creek Country Club.
The Centre of Elgin, which among other features includes an aquatic park and a climbing wall, remains one of the biggest municipal recreation centers in the United States.
The Elgin Sports Complex on the city's southwest side offers ten lighted ballfields, ten soccer fields and The Hill BMX track.
Elgin joins to Algonquin and Dundee to the north, and St.
Although one of the biggest and fastest-growing metros/cities in Illinois, Elgin still retains some of the natural beauty and surrounding range that first brought pioneer to this area.
Elgin boasts two highly protected nature preserves, the Bluff Spring Fen and Trout Park.
Historic print of Main Building of Elgin State Hospital, completed in 1993 Many interesting Sears Catalog Homes appeared in Elgin as kits from 1908 to 1940.
It is believed that Elgin had at one time the biggest concentration of cobblestone homes outside of Rochester, New York.
They can be seen in Elgin's historic districts, two of which are recognized by the National Register of Historic Places.
The Elgin Public Museum at Lords Park is the earliest building in Illinois assembled expressly as a exhibition that is still serving that purpose.
The nine-member Elgin Heritage Commission promotes historic preservation activity.
Elgin has three stations on Metra's Milwaukee District/West Line, which provides daily rail service between Elgin and Chicago, Illinois (at Union Station): National Street, Elgin, and Big Timber Road.
Elgin used to have a streetcar system, directed by the Aurora, Elgin and Fox River Electric Company.
Additionally, Elgin was served by a several interurban lines.
The most prominent of these was the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad which provided incessant service into Chicago.
Most of the routes terminate at the Elgin Bus Terminal positioned at 100 West Chicago Street in downtown.
Several routes also travel out of Elgin to other close-by suburbs, such as Carpentersville, Dundee (Spring Hill Mall), Schaumburg (Woodfield Mall), and St.
Beginning in 2016, Pace began service on an express route between Elgin and the Rosemont (CTA Blue Line And Metra station).
Major highways in Elgin include: Four enhance school districts and 18 private schools serve Elgin.
Elgin Area School District U46 Elgin-based, serves most of Elgin U-46, the second biggest school precinct in Illinois, serves an region of some 90 square miles (230 km2) in Cook, Du - Page and Kane Counties.
Elgin's two enhance high schools, Elgin High School and Larkin High School, are home to ted and Talented Academy and the Visual and Performing Arts Academy, in the order given.
Community Unit School District 301 Burlington-based, serves some portions of Elgin Community Unit School District 300 Carpentersville-based, serves some northwestern portions of Elgin Charles-based, serves some southwestern portions of Elgin Elgin Academy Elgin Community College serves the precinct #509 communities of St.
Charles, Burlington, South Elgin, Wayne, Bartlett, Algonquin, Dundee, Hampshire and lesser towns, and is one of the fastest-growing improve universities in the state.
Main article: List of citizens from Elgin, Illinois Main article: Elgin, Illinois, Centennial half dollar Elgin, Illinois, Centennial half dollar In 1936, a commemorative silver half dollar was issued by the United States Mint commemorating the centennial of Elgin.
Elgin in mass media Elgin was one of the communities around the Chicago urbane region affected by the 1920 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak on March 18, 1920.
Part of the comedy film Dennis the Menace (1993) is set in Elgin.
The Elgin Mental Health Center appears in the movie Primal Fear (1996).
A scene in the 2010 film A Nightmare on Elm Street was shot in Elgin's Bluff City Cemetery.
Purge Feed footage depicts Elgin in The Purge (2013).
The exterior of the home in the tv series Grace Under Fire is on Elgin's east side at 445 Du - Page Street. The tv series Roseanne was set in the fictional town of Lanford but was modeled after Elgin At one point, Jackie attends a trucking school in Elgin.
Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: City of Elgin "Elgin (city), Illinois".
Elgin: An American History.
Elgin: An American History.
"Elgin: Days Gone By By E.
"The History of Elgin, Illinois".
"Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (DP-1): Elgin city, Illinois".
"Elgin Housing Market Shows Strength in 2013 Numbers".
"Rakow Branch - Gail Borden Public Library District - Elgin, Illinois".
"Elgin Commemorative Half Dollar".
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Elgin, Illinois.
City of Elgin official website Elgin Area Historical Society Historic Elgin
Categories:
Elgin, Illinois - 1835 establishments in Illinois - Chicago urbane region - Cities in Illinois - Cities in Cook County, Illinois - Cities in Kane County, Illinois - Populated places established in 1835
|