Woodstock, Illinois Woodstock Woodstock Illinois 02.jpg The Woodstock Opera House on the Square in historic downtown Woodstock Location of Woodstock inside Illinois and the Chicago region Wikimedia Commons: Woodstock, Illinois Woodstock is a town/city in and the governmental center of county of Mc - Henry County, Illinois, United States, positioned 51 miles (82 km) northwest of Chicago. The populace was 25,528 at the start of 2017.
The city's downtown includes a historic, turn-of-the-century town square, which is anchored by the landmark Woodstock Opera House and the Old Mc - Henry County Courthouse.
Centerville, as Woodstock was originally called, was chosen as the governmental center of county on September 4, 1843, due to its locale at the geographic center of Mc - Henry County.
In 1845, resident Joel Johnson proposed that Centerville be given a more initial name, and so the town was retitled Woodstock after Johnson's hometown of Woodstock, Vermont.
(The town was listed as "Center" on the 1850 Federal Census, however.) In 1852, Woodstock was incorporated as a village with Judd as president.
In response to a burgeoning populace following the Civil War, Woodstock was incorporated as a town/city in 1873.
Old Mc - Henry County Courthouse and jail in Woodstock Debs served a short federal prison sentence in the Woodstock Jail following the 1894 Pullman workforce strike in Chicago.
Debs, the former president of the American Railway Union, was held in Woodstock freshwater Chicago because federal officials feared that he would be surrounded with too many sympathizers in a Chicago prison and therefore could have still incited further violence.
Debs was instead assigned to a cell in the newly constructed Woodstock Jail, which occupied the lowest floor of the Woodstock Courthouse on the town square.
By the time he was released in November 1895 (to great fanfare and before crowds of confrontations assembled in the Woodstock Square), Debs had turn into a socialist and a nationwide celebrity. He later ran for the United States Presidency five times between 1900 and 1920 as the candidate for the newly formed Social Democratic Party. Typewriters in a Woodstock business' window in 2013.
Note the name "Woodstock" on some of them.
During the early part of the 20th century, Woodstock had turn into "Typewriter City." Home to the factories of both the Emerson Typewriter Company and the Oliver Typewriter Company, Woodstock workers had assembled more than half the world's typewriters by 1922. The companies were very much a part of life in the town/city during this time.
In 1919, Emerson Typewriter became the Woodstock Typewriter Company.
The town/city interval and flourished with increasing demand for Woodstock typewriters up through and after World War II.
Initially the business sold typewriters for use in the war accomplishment domestically and abroad, but even after the war's end returning servicemen, now familiar with the Woodstock brand, chose these models for their homeholds.
Woodstock had an meaningful part in the creative evolution of Orson Welles.
In 1926 at age 10, in the midst of a chaotic upbringing, he enrolled at the Todd School for Boys in Woodstock.
Years later, in 1960, when asked where he thought of as his hometown, he replied "I suppose it's Woodstock, Illinois, if it's anywhere.
He also performed at the downtown Woodstock Opera House, where the stage the site of his American debut as a experienced theatre director is now dedicated to him. Welles returned to Woodstock periodically after leaving school.
In July 1934 at the age of 19, he coordinated the Todd Theatre Festival, a six-week summer festival at the Woodstock Opera House that featured Hilton Edwards and Micheal Mac - Liammoir of Dublin's Gate Theatre.:165 His short film The Hearts of Age was shot on the Todd School ground during the festival. Woodstock is perhaps most famous for its part as the locale for the 1993 movie Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray.
Although the story is set in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the movie's producers preferred the quintessentially American backdrop of the Woodstock Square and its surroundings.
Several scenes in the 1987 film Planes, Trains, and Automobiles were shot in Woodstock, including the scene in which the protagonists' rental car is towed in front of a building (the old Courthouse). The movie brought Woodstock to the consideration of locale manager Bob Hudgins, who later recommended the town to Harold Ramis for the recording of Groundhog Day. The bandstand in the center of the Woodstock Square As the recording locale for the 1993 movie, Woodstock jubilates Groundhog Day every February 2.
The town uses its own groundhog titled "Woodstock Willie," whose prognostication is the center of the annual ceremony (just like Punxsutawney Phil in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania).
During the weekend of Groundhog Day, tours of famous recording locations are offered, and the Classic Cinemas' Woodstock Theater shows Groundhog Day for free.
Woodstock City Band Concerts (summer) One of Woodstock's longest standing summertime traditions (starting in 1885), these no-charge Wednesday evening summer concerts are held in the Park in the Square and are often accompanied by an ice cream social.
An annual family run/walk race (10 - K, 5 - K, 1 mile and 1/2-mile) through Emricson Park, sponsored by the Woodstock Recreation Department.
After a small presentation from the mayor, City council representative and Santa Claus, Miss Woodstock moves to her oversized light switch and starts the crowd's countdown.
The Woodstock Independent is the award-winning small-town paper of record and is bringed weekly to subscribers. Published on Wednesdays, The Independent covers improve news, affairs as well as small-town government and schools.
The Independent also prints The Torch, a feature-oriented periodical delivered no-charge to all Woodstock inhabitants 8 or 9 times a year. Woodstock has turn into an meaningful destination for live music in Mc - Henry County and the region with venues featuring local, national, and global artists.
A number of organizations support and promote live music in Woodstock: Opera Woodstock Woodstock Folk Festival Woodstock City Band Woodstock's enhance schools are part of Woodstock Community Unit School District 200, which was formed in 1969. The precinct currently operates 6 elementary schools (Dean Street, Greenwood, Mary Endres, Olson, Prariewood and Westwood), two middle schools (Northwood and Creekside) and two high schools (Woodstock High School and Woodstock North High School). The three newest buildings, Prariewood, Creekside and WNHS, were allowed in a March 2006 popular vote to address crowding in schools due to the area's expansion between the mid-1990s and 2008. Mary Catholic undertaking school (K-8) is positioned in town and students often continue on to Marian Central Catholic High School, also positioned in Woodstock.
Loyola University Chicago owns and operates a large property on Woodstock's easterly edge as its Retreat and Ecology Campus. Aurora University also operates its Woodstock Center downtown.
Shopping on Woodstock's Historic Square According to Woodstock's 2015 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the town/city are: 2 Woodstock Community Unit School District 200 1,010 Woodstock Railroad Station Woodstock's barns station is the penultimate passenger stop on Metra's Union Pacific Northwest Line, which originates from Ogilvie Transportation Center in downtown Chicago and ends in Harvard, Illinois.
At Woodstock, Metra offers passengers 9 daily trains to Chicago on weekdays (11 returning outbound), and between 400 and 500 daily passengers use the train for travel to Chicago or other suburban communities along the line.
This direct link to the town/city was historically instrumental in Woodstock's expansion as a city, and remains an attractive option for small-town commuters and inhabitants to reach Chicago.
As a result, Woodstock's use of the fitness is greater than that of nearly half of the Metra system's other outlying stations, many of which serve larger or geographically nearer communities. Other enhance ground transit is limited to Pace bus route 807, which joins downtown Woodstock with downtown Mc - Henry. Rideshare service Uber also offers coverage in Woodstock and all of Mc - Henry County.
Route 14 once took drivers through the heart of downtown Woodstock, but a undivided bypass now curves around the city's southwest border.
Illinois Route 120's end is in northwest Woodstock, and continues east past Woodstock's downtown and into non-urban Mc - Henry County.
According to the 2010 census, Woodstock has a total region of 13.55 square miles (35.09 km2), all land. Real Woodstock - Tourism and Visitor Guides History of Woodstock City of Woodstock official website a b "Woodstock, IL".
"Woodstock, by Nancy Baker".
Woodstock Opera House.
"Orson Welles Stage dedicated at Woodstock Opera House".
"Todd School for Boys 1848 1954, Woodstock, Illinois" (PDF).
Woodstock Public Library.
"In Woodstock, historic dorm for boys school attended by Orson Welles faces demolition".
"Every Day is Groundhog Day in Woodstock, IL!".
"City of Woodstock : Woodstock, Illinois" (PDF).
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Categories:
Woodstock, Illinois - Chicago urbane region - Cities in Illinois - County seats in Illinois - Cities in Mc - Henry County, Illinois - Populated places established in 1842
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