Sycamore, Illinois Sycamore Historic District6.jpg Downtown Sycamore - Looking west from State Street and Main Street.
Location of Sycamore inside Illinois Location of Sycamore inside Illinois Wikimedia Commons: Sycamore, Illinois Sycamore is a town/city in De - Kalb County, Illinois, United States.
Sycamore is the governmental center of county of De - Kalb County and was titled after the sycamore tree.
Prior to settlement the county of De - Kalb that Sycamore is contained inside was populated by the Pottawatomie. The first European pioneer to the Sycamore-area appeared in 1835 and concentrated themselves mostly north of the Kishwaukee River and the present site of Sycamore.
By 1837, after some controversy, the locale of governmental center of county was settled in favor of Orange, Sycamore's initial name, and the settlement moved to the present-day site of the city. Early in the city's history, it seemed, that Sycamore might not be the locale of the De - Kalb County Courthouse; other suburbs were vying for the governmental center of county title.
Henry Madden and Rufus Colton would have preferred Coltonville, where he made his home. The Clerk of the Court and preparer of the writs and process of the court, a man titled Colton, had set the first session of county court to be held at his home, in Coltonville. In his attempt to make Coltonville the county seat, Colton decided to hold a new election for the status in 1837.
His political tactics were eventually cancelled by an act of the Illinois General Assembly, after the De - Kalb County court intervened.
When court convened the sheriff served a court order declaring a courthouse be assembled in Sycamore. Afterward, Coltonville eventually suffered the same fate as Brush Point and disappeared from the map. These affairs seemingly settled the copy of where the courthouse and, in turn, the De - Kalb County seat was going to be located. In 1903, as the county prepared to construct a new courthouse, the debate over governmental center of county was reignited.
This time, it was the town/city of De - Kalb that sought to wrest the title of governmental center of county away from Sycamore.
The town/city of Sycamore responded, raising funds of their own, and after some back and forth and legal wrangling, the copy was settled in Sycamore's favor. Following the end of the second governmental center of county controversy, in 1839, the first De - Kalb County Courthouse was assembled in the city, as well as Sycamore's first hotel.
Sycamore then began an era of steady expansion marked by populace increases in 1848 to 262, 1849 to 320, 1850 to 390, 1851 to 435. The Sycamore and Cortland Railroad appeared in the late 1850s and a station was erected in Sycamore.
Following the American Civil War the barns began to assist Sycamore's expansion and the settlement was incorporated as a town/city in 1869. Sycamore is positioned at 41 59 2 N 88 41 39 W (41.983850, -88.694091). The town/city is positioned along Illinois Route 64 (State Street in Sycamore) about 35 miles (56 km) southeast of Rockford and 55 miles (89 km) west-northwest of Chicago.
According to the 2010 census, Sycamore has a total region of 9.768 square miles (25.30 km2), of which 9.73 square miles (25.20 km2) (or 99.61%) is territory and 0.038 square miles (0.10 km2) (or 0.39%) is water. The terrain in Sycamore and the encircling area is gently rolling and contains rich soil which was originally heavily forested. The commercial precinct of Sycamore is based on Illinois Route 64, and stretches about a mile down starting from the intersection of route 64 with Illinois Route 23 and ending at Center Cross Road.
The De - Kalb County Courthouse lawn becomes a colorful display of pumpkins amid the annual Sycamore Pumpkin Festival.
Sycamore is home to the annual Sycamore Pumpkin Festival, a pumpkin festival established in 1962 when small-town resident Wally Thurow began displaying pumpkins on his front lawn.
The lawn of the De - Kalb County Courthouse is the center of the event and includes a display of decorated and carved pumpkins. The event attracts thousands to Sycamore from locations throughout northern Illinois, the Midwest, and the broader United States. The town/city is also home to the Sycamore Historic District, an architecturally interesting region including over 200 individual properties. The precinct was established in 1978 when it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The region is bounded in an irregular pattern along Main and Somonauk Streets but contains portions of a several other streets and includes much of the downtown commercial precinct and residentiary areas north and south of downtown. During the summer, the Sycamore Historical Society offers guided walking tours with a small-town historian. Sycamore is also home to the Midwest Museum of Natural History, featuring a varied taxidermy collection.
Although the town/city of Sycamore has never been a manufacturing or industrialized center of any great consequence it has always possessed an industrialized base that could be termed "adequate". Among Sycamore's early industries were Marsh Harvester Manufacturing, R.
De - Kalb County Courthouse in downtown Sycamore The Sycamore City Council consists of a Mayor propel at-large and eight Aldermen representing one of four wards (two per ward).
Public schooling began in Sycamore as early as 1839, with classes held in the first De - Kalb County Courthouse, a log building athwart the street from the courthouse's current location. The city's first school building was assembled in 1853. Current enhance education needs in Sycamore are provided by Sycamore Community Unit School District 427.
The current Superintendent of Sycamore School District is Kathy Countryman.
The precinct operates Sycamore High School, Sycamore Middle School, and five elementary schools.
Sycamore is the locale of a notable cold case, the 1957 abduction and murder of 7-year-old Maria Ridulph.
On the evening of December 3, 1957, Maria disappeared while playing outside her family's Sycamore home.
A search and investigation by small-town and state police and the FBI floundered to locate either Maria or "Johnny", and the following April, Maria's body was found in a field approximately 100 miles from Sycamore.
Fulton, Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, lived in Sycamore Debi Towns, politician, born in Sycamore List of properties (Sycamore Historic District) Sycamore Historic District "Sycamore Historic District," (PDF), National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form, December 13, 1978, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, accessed 21 May 2008.
"Looking Back at the De - Kalb County Courthouse," De - Kalb County Online.
History of De - Kalb County Courthouse, 16th Judicial Circuit, 2005.
"Welcome to a bright new town - Sycamore: A richness of sites will be veiled in this tour", Daily Chronicle (De - Kalb, Illinois), August 14, 2006, accessed May 21, 2008.
"Year's last guided walking tour of the Sycamore Historic District is Sunday", Daily Chronicle (De - Kalb, Illinois), August 27, 2007, accessed May 21, 2008.
"De - Kalb County Courthouse", Taming the Wild Prairie Digitization Project, 2004, Northern Illinois University, accessed May 21, 2008.
Municipalities and communities of De - Kalb County, Illinois, United States County seat: Sycamore De - Kalb Genoa Sandwich Sycamore Afton Clinton Cortland De - Kalb Franklin Genoa Kingston Malta Mayfield Milan Paw Paw Pierce Sandwich Shabbona Somonauk South Grove Squaw Grove Sycamore Victor This populated place also has portions in an adjoining county or counties
Categories:
Sycamore, Illinois - Cities in Illinois - County seats in Illinois - Populated places established in 1835 - Cities in De - Kalb County, Illinois - 1835 establishments in Illinois
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