Dwight Chicago East St. Louis Brooklyn Venice Madison Granite City Pontoon Beach Mitchell Fairmont City Collinsville Maryville Troy Glen Carbon Edwardsville Livingston Williamson Staunton Mount Olive Waggoner Sawyerville Benld Mount Clare Gillespie East Gillespie Carlinville Nilwood Girard Virden Divernon Auburn Chatham Glenarm Southern View Jerome Springfield Sherman Chenoa Ocoya Pontiac Cayuga Odell Gardner Braceville Godley Farmersville Litchfield Hamel Thayer Williamsville Braidwood Wilmington Elwood Preston Heights Joliet Crest Hill Lockport Romeoville Channahon Shorewood Plainfield Bolingbrook Woodridge Darien Willowbrook Burr Ridge Indian Head Park Countryside Hodgkins McCook Lyons Elkhart Broadwell Lincoln Lawndale Atlanta McLean Funks Grove Shirley Bloomington Normal Towanda Lexington Stickney Riverside Berwyn Cicero
Dwight
Established in 1854, Dwight was named for a New
York railroad investor. It was still a quiet railroad
town in 1879 when young Dr. Leslie Keeley opened
the doors of the Keeley Institute, the first medical
institution to treat alcoholism as a disease. By the
1890s, Keeley Institutes were located in nearly every
state in the nation and many oversea countries.
Several [...]
East St. Louis
Originally known as Illinoistown, this town is located in historic St. Clair County, along the Mississippi River opposite St. Louis, Missouri. About 1797 a ferry station was established on the site by Captain James Piggott, a pioneer and Illinois territorial judge, and in 1818 a village was laid out. The home of giant packing houses [...]
Brooklyn
Brooklyn (popularly known as Lovejoy), is a village in St. Clair County, just north of East St. Louis. It is the oldest black town in the United States and was named for Elijah P. Lovejoy (1802-1837), an abolitionist from St. Louis.
In 1829, led by “Mother” Priscilla Baltimore, a group of eleven families composed of both [...]
Venice
This Madison County river town of 2,500 is in the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is joined to the city by the McKinley Bridge, the first crossing of Route 66. The bridge was owned by the city of Venice and operated as a toll bridge. After decades of disrepair due to the lack of toll [...]
Madison
Madison is a city located in Madison County. A city of about 4,500, it is home to Gateway International Raceway and the first Bulgarian Orthodox church in the United States.
Granite City
The first European settlers began arriving in the Granite City area in the 1830s attracted by the rich bottom land east of the Mississippi River. Granite City was originally called Six Mile Prairie because its farmers had to travel six miles to St. Louis to sell their produce and buy supplies. An early ferry operated [...]
Pontoon Beach
The Village of Pontoon Beach is located approximately 10 miles northeast of downtown St. Louis in Madison County, Illinois. A community of 6,000 people, Pontoon Beach is bordered by the 2,300 acre Gateway Commerce Center, I-270 and I-255 and the communities of Granite City and Madison.
Mitchell
This is an unincorporated community located at the junction of Interstate 270 and Illinois Route 203, part of former U.S. Highway 66. It is located about twenty miles north of East St. Louis. Neighboring towns include Granite City, Pontoon Beach, Edwardsville, and Hartford. A few years ago, Mitchell tried to become an independent city, but [...]
Fairmont City
A village in St. Clair County with a population of almost 2,500, Fairmont City has the highest percentage of Hispanic poplulation (55%) in the entire St. Louis Metropolitan area.
Collinsville
Collinsville, a historic town on the bluffs of the Mississippi River, has a sweeping view of downtown St. Louis and the Gateway Arch, only ten miles to the west. In recent years, this town of 24,000 has evolved into a fast growing, “bedroom community” for St. Louis commuters.
It is renowned for having the world’s largest [...]
Maryville
German farmers started settling in the area near St. John Lutheran Church between 1840 and 1845. The area on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River was known as Ridge Prairie. The specific area near the church was called Pleasant Ridge.
Troy
In 1819, settler John Jarvis sold ten acres for $100 to James Riggen and David Hendershott. The community formerly known as Columbia was then mapped out, surveyed, and renamed Troy. Within a year, the village was populated by 120 people. Troy’s humble beginnings started with just a band mill, storehouse, taverns, and housing. Troy officially [...]
Glen Carbon
In 1799, David Bagley, a Virginia Baptist minister passed through the Glen Carbon area and determined that it was a land of such expanse and luxuriant vegetation that he compared it to the Biblical “Land of Goshen.” In 1801, Colonel Samuel Judy received a military grant for 100 acres of land near the base of [...]
Edwardsville
The third oldest city in Illinois, Edwardsville was first settled in 1805 when Thomas Kirkpatrick built a one-room log cabin on the ridge above Cahokia Creek. Edwardsville’s namesake, Ninian Edwards, was appointed territorial governor in 1809 when the Illinois Territory was established. He built a home here in 1819-20. Edwards served as governor of the [...]
Livingston
This community was founded as a coal mining town in 1905. It has a population of nearly 800 people. The Pink Elephant Antique Mall, housed in the old Livingston High School, is visible from I-55.
Staunton
This is one of the first farm areas settled in Macoupin County in 1835. A man named Stanton donated land for a village square, but when the new settlers applied for a post office the name was approved as “Staunton.” In the 1880s, coal mining became the principal industry in the area. Hundreds of European [...]
Mount Olive
A German immigrant named John C. Niemann bought forty acres in 1846 and sent for his brothers, Fred and Henry, who bought property adjoining John’s farm. Soon more Germans came to the area and Niemann built the first store and post office to service the many settlers in what was then known as Niemann’s Settlement. [...]
Sawyerville
This is a small mining town which began in 1903 when the Superior Coal Company sank shaft number 2 (see Benld history). It currently has just over 200 residents.
Benld
The name derives from Benjamin L. Dorsey, who was responsible for gaining the land and coal mining rights on which the town was built. According to legend, the sign painter making a sign for the town fell when he got to the D, and so the town became Benld. Miners and their families came from [...]
Mount Clare
This is a small mining town which began in 1904 when the Superior Coal Company sank shaft number 3 (see Benld history). It currently has just over 400 residents.
Gillespie
This is another mining town in Macoupin County with a current population of almost 3,500. Three mines operated there in 1910.
Carlinville
Named after a former governor of Illinois (Thomas Carlin, governor 1838-1842), this is a site of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates. The most important edifice is the courthouse, built in 1870, and designed by famous state capitol building architect Elijah E. Myers. An entire neighborhood of Sears Catalog Homes was funded and constructed in 1918, by [...]
Girard
In 1852, the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company built a railroad through section 32 of Girard Township. The following year, Girard was laid out near the railroad and was incorporated in February, 1855. The coal mine was sunk in 1869 and closed in 1922. By 1891, the mine employed 200 men.
Virden
Laid out in 1852 along the Chicago and Alton Railroad, it was named for John Virden, a local innkeeper. A coal-mining town, Virden was the scene of a mine riot on October 12, 1898. Violence erupted between guards and miners following the arrival of some 200 African American workers from Alabama who were hired by [...]
Divernon
This is another farm community near Springfield established in the early years of Sangamon County.
Auburn
Only minutes from the State Capital, Auburn can trace its roots back to the earliest settlers in Sangamon County and all of Illinois.
Chatham
The first farm settlers arrived in the area in 1816. The village received its name October 22, 1836. Chatham is located in what was once open prairie between Lick Creek and Panther Creek in Sangamon County, which at that time was about the center of the new state of Illinois, approximately ten miles south of [...]
Southern View
This village of almost 1,700 is surrounded by Springfield on the southern edge of the city.
Jerome
This village of almost 1,500 is surrounded by the city of Springfield, the state capital. Jerome is positioned on the west side of Springfield and shares a common boundary on the east and south sides. Also, on the north side, Jerome shares a common boundary with the Village of Leland Grove.
Springfield
Springfield was settled by trappers and traders who came to the Sangamon River in 1818. In 1821, Calhoun became the county seat of Sangamon County; due to the fertile soil, and trading opportunities, settlers from Kentucky, Virginia, and as far as North Carolina came to the city. By 1832, Senator Calhoun had fallen out of [...]
Sherman
In 1858, four men bought, surveyed and platted what is now called Sherman. The town’s name was a result of the luck of the draw. The four men placed their names in a hat and David Sherman’s name was drawn. Early settlers were predominately Italian coal miners. Because of its proximity to Springfield and I-55, [...]
Chenoa
Located at the crossroads of Routes 66 and 24, and the C&A and TP&W rail lines, Chenoa’s motto is “Crossroads of Opportunity.” This is a farming center built on rail lines. Matthew T. Scott established the town in 1854. His family’s house has been restored and is on the National Register of Historical Places. For [...]
Pontiac
Named for the Ottawa Indian Chief, Pontiac was platted in 1837 and soon became the population center of the area. In the 1870s, Pontiac became an important regional trading center due to its strategic location on the railroad between Chicago and St. Louis. When Route 66 came through in 1926, the town provided services and [...]
Cayuga
Cayuga is a small unincorporated farm community on the 1850s Chicago & Alton rail line. The 18.2 mile stretch of road from Cayuga to Chenoa was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2007. The road is paralleled on its east by the Union Pacific Railroad tracks and on its west by [...]
Odell
Like many small towns on historic Route 66, Odell is a small farming community established in 1854 when the Chicago & Alton Railroad was built. “The railroad is the foundation of the town and its surroundings. Before the settlers came there was only tall grass where Odell now stands. It was literally a ‘desert waste.’ [...]
Gardner
This historic mining town of 1,400 is best known for its two-celled jail dating from 1910. Northeast of town on the Mazon River, stands the Riviera Restaurant, a classic Route 66 roadhouse. It was built in 1928 from structures moved from Gardner and South Wilmington.
Braceville
The village of Braceville was once a thriving city with 3,500 residents at its height. By the late 1880s the town had six general merchandise stores, two banks, a hotel, two restaurants and 18 other retail businesses. In the summer of 1910, miners of the Braceville Coal Company went on strike. [...]
Godley
Godley was a coal mining settlement of the nineteenth century. During its heyday around the turn of the 20th century, the town had 18 taverns and 8 houses of ill repute. According to one report, “Godley was probably one of the most ungodly places on earth at that time.” One [...]
Litchfield
Litchfield began with the arrival of the Terre Haute, Alton and St. Louis Railroad in 1854. Some two miles to the southwest, a group of people founded Hardinsburg, expecting that the railroad would “boom” the town. The railroad, instead, came through Litchfield and doomed Hardinsburg. The Hardinsburg natives hedged their bets, however, and built their [...]
Hamel
This is a town that proudly proclaims its heritage with banners, calling itself “The Best Little Town on Route 66.” Established in 1818, this small town of less than 600 people wasn’t even an incorporated village until 1955. The community was named for Jack Hamel, a farmer who owned a large amount of land and [...]
Thayer
This farm/mining village of 750 in Sangamon County sprang up on the Chicago & Alton Railroad.
Williamsville
Established as another of the many villages along the railroad, the town was originally platted in 1853 as Benton. When the residents petitioned for a post office, they found that the name was already taken and the village was renamed Williamsville in honor of Colonel John Williams, a local land owner. Today, this primarily agricultural [...]
Braidwood
Braidwood was a coal town filled with immigrants from all over the world, along with their varying political, religious, and cultural ideals. These differences often spawned violence. However, most disagreements were forgotten in the common cause to improve wages and working conditions. Some strikes were quelled when the town was occupied by troops and company [...]
Wilmington
Wilmington began in 1834 when Thomas Cox acquired 400 acres of land from the government and built a saw mill. He later added a corn cracker, a gristmill, and a carding machine and the enterprise took on the name Cox’s Mills. Patronized by settlers from as far as 50 miles away, pioneers brought their corn [...]
Elwood
Elwood was founded in 1854 along the Joliet- Bloomington rail line, and incorporated as a village in 1869. Elwood remained a small farming community until 1941, when the federal government required land with which to train soldiers for World War II and to construct the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant. In spite of the closing of [...]
Joliet
Joliet originally bore the name “Juliet” which was probably a corruption of the of French Canadian explorer Louis Jolliet’s name. Jolliet first ventured through this area in the fall of 1673, describing the game as abundant and the prairies wide, surrounded by lush forests.
Though the settlement already existed, the town wasn’t officially laid out until [...]
Crest Hill
Crest Hill incorporated in 1960 to avoid annexation to Joliet. The Lincoln Highway bisects the western half of the city, and old Route 66 travels along its eastern edge. As a new community it has no downtown. The only historic buildings are along Route 66. Crest Hill’s motto, “A City of New Beginnings,” reflects its [...]
Lockport
Lockport, located in the Des Plaines River Valley, grew initially as the headquarters for the Illinois & Michigan Canal and as an agricultural processing center. In recent years, history has become a focus of commercial development. In 1968 the Will County Historical Society opened a canal museum in the old I&M Canal headquarters building. The [...]
Romeoville
Romeoville, some 30 miles southwest of Chicago, was first called Romeo when nearby Joliet was still called “Juliet.” Founded in the 1830s, the area was home to abundant farmlands and stone quarries. In 1845, Juliet was changed to Joliet to honor the famous explorer Louis Jolliet. When this happened, Romeo changed to “Romeoville.” Located on [...]
Channahon
Its name meaning “Meeting of the Waters” in the language of the area’s original Potawatomi inhabitants, Channahon is located at the confluence of the Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers, where they form the Illinois River. The Illinois and Michigan Canal (including several locks) runs through most of the village, where it is fed by the [...]
Shorewood
Established in the 1830s as Troy (after the city in New York), village commerce focused on the DuPage River. The name was changed to Shorewood to reflect the resorts along the river and because a Troy, Illinois already existed. With over 10,000 residents, it has become a thriving suburb of Chicago.
Plainfield
Tracing its roots to the 1820s, the village of Plainfield is the oldest American community in Will County. It was earlier a Potawatomie village site along the DuPage River. Over the years it has grown from a river and railroad town to become a thriving suburb of Chicago.
Plainfield’s main thoroughfare, Lockport Street, was chosen as [...]
Bolingbrook
The modern Village of Bolingbrook got its start in the first half of the 1960s when the first builder laid out the first housing tract in the farm fields just north of old U.S. 66 and beside Illinois Route 53. The three original home tracts - sold from 1961 to 1965 under the names of [...]
Woodridge
Woodridge was incorporated in 1959 with less than 500 residents, on a wooded area of high ground overlooking the DuPage River’s East Branch. A special census commissioned in 2003 put the population at 33,253. Woodridge is a young community with the vast majority of its homes, businesses, and churches constructed after the 1950s. In July [...]
Darien
The community began as a stagecoach inn in 1835. However, it was not incorporated until 1969 when four Chicago suburbs decided to unify as one city. The mayor suggested that it be named for Darien, Connecticut, which he found to be a very pleasant and attractive community. Today, Darien is known as “A Nice Place [...]
Willowbrook
This bedroom community in DuPage County, was incorporated from the Ridgemoor subdivision in 1960. Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket has been a Route 66 icon since 1946.
Burr Ridge
Burr Ridge’s gently rolling hills were carved by glaciers at the end of the last ice age, and most of the village lies on the Valparaiso Moraine. Flagg Creek, a tributary of the Des Plaines River, runs through town.
After 1848, farmers shipped their goods to Chicago along the Illinois & Michigan Canal. A small settlement [...]
Indian Head Park
The first Democratic Convention of Cook County was
held in the area in 1835. Just north of the village,
now on the site of the Timber Trails subdivision,
is one of the last camps of the Potawatomi Indians
in Illinois. The Village of Indian Head Park was
incorporated on August 4, 1959. The 2000 census
listed 3,685 residents.
Countryside
Countryside was originally inhabited by the Potawatomi Indians and later by early American pioneers in the beginning of the 19th century. The area remained as large expanses of rural farmland until the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which sent thousands of City dwellers into what is now the West Suburban Chicago Region. With land selling [...]
Hodgkins
Transportation and stone quarries have shaped the development of Hodgkins. In the late 1880s the Santa Fe Railroad came through this area and the Kimball and Cobb Stone Company opened a large limestone quarry. The town was named for Jefferson Hodgkins, president of the company, and was incorporated as a village in 1896. Italian Americans [...]
McCook
Permanent settlement began in the 1880s when several quarries began operating. This dangerous and exhausting work primarily attracted youthful male laborers—first Eastern European immigrants, including Poles, Croatians, and Italians, and later African Americans and Mexican Americans. The stone was shipped on the Illinois & Michigan Canal and later on the Sanitary and Ship Canal. In [...]
Lyons
The marshy region at what is now 47th and Harlem separates waters that flow into the Great Lakes from those that flow into the Mississippi River. During wet seasons Native Americans could travel from the South Branch of the Chicago River to the Des Plaines River through an area called Mud Lake. The Chicago Portage [...]
Elkhart
Elk Heart Hill is a tree covered glacial moraine that rises 777 feet above sea level, contrasting with the surrounding flat prairie land. The first American came in 1819 and settled what was then known as Elk Heart Grove on the stage route from Springfield to Bloomington. With the coming of the railroad in 1853, [...]
Broadwell
The Village of Broadwell was laid out on the Chicago & Alton rail line in 1856 by William Broadwell and Jacob Eisiminger. Broadwell became a shipping point for hogs, corn, wheat and later soybeans. The Village of Broadwell featured the well-known “Pig Hip” Restaurant, operated by Ernest L. (”Ernie”) Edwards and family from 1937 through [...]
Lincoln
This is the only town named for and christened by Abraham Lincoln before he became president. First settled in the 1830s, it was officially named for Lincoln on August 27, 1853. Lincoln had assisted with the platting of the town and worked as counsel for the C. & A. Railroad newly laid through the community. [...]
Lawndale
This small farm town has one tavern, no gas station, and a converted mobile home as its post office. It is regionally known for “the Lawndale Incident.” On July 25, 1977 two giant unidentified birds, commonly known in Crypto-Zoology as “Thunderbirds,” passed over Lawndale, Illinois. One swooped down and grabbed ten-year-old Marlon Lowe from his [...]
Atlanta
Atlanta was established in 1853 when its founder, Thomas Gill, recognized where the path of the Chicago and Alton Railroad would be laid from St.Louis to Chicago.
This picturesque town is located near the midway point on Route 66 between Chicago and St. Louis. It is noted for its many murals on the historic buildings. At [...]
McLean
McLean, a farming community of about 800, featuresa downtown area with several historic buildings anda restored train depot that houses an antique shop.This small town of 800 residents still continues toattract visitors at the Dixie Truckers Home, theoldest truck stop in Illinois. Filled with Route 66memorabilia, the truck stop has been serving upburgers and fries [...]
Funks Grove
Funks Grove Illinois’ Grand Prairie was spotted with groves, small patches of land where local terrain discouraged prairie fires and allowed trees to reach maturity. One such grove on Timber Creek was homesteaded by Isaac Funk in 1824 who tapped the maple trees to make sirup. The family has been selling sirup commercially since 1891. [...]
Shirley
Shirley is a small, unincorporated town located south of Bloomington. It was founded in 1854 as a farm and railroad town and currently has a population of 378.
Bloomington
When McLean County was created in 1830, Bloomington was named as the county seat, but the actual location of the community was to be determined later. James Allen, one of the promoters of McLean County, donated 40 acres of land to the new town. Farmers attracted by the rich soil flocked to the area starting [...]
Normal
In 1854 the town of North Bloomington was platted in the area which was commonly known as “The Junction,” which was located at the intersection of the Illinois Central and the Chicago & Alton railroads. Jesse Fell is referred to as the “founding father” of Normal.
In 1857, Governor William Bissell signed a bill to create [...]
Towanda
This farm town is named for the birthplace of Jesse Fell in Pennsylvania. Founder of Normal and Illinois State University, he donated the land for the town in 1853. The settlers found vast stretches of prairie that they broke for prosperous farms. The railroad line that bisects the village was central to the life of [...]
Lexington
Lexington One of Illinois’ oldest towns founded in 1837, Lexington was named after the Massachusetts battleground. During its Route 66 heyday, it had nine gas stations and numerous eateries and motels. It continues to celebrate its heritage of the Mother Road with murals on its buildings and a walking trail called “Memory Lane.” This one [...]
Stickney
Until about 1900 the village of Stickney was covered by Mud Lake across which ran the historic portage trail between the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers. Mud Lake began to recede with the construction of the Illinois & Michigan Canal in 1836, and by 1900 the Sanitary and Ship Canal had left it relatively dry. [...]
Riverside
Riverside is situated on a beautiful stretch of the Des Plaines River. Frederick Law Olmsted, the famous landscape architect, designed an elite suburban community here in 1865. The curvilinear street plan and the open spaces are landmarks in American residential planning. In 1893 several wealthy local residents opened the Riverside Golf Club, one of the [...]
Berwyn
In 1846, the first land in “Berwyn” was deeded to Theodore Doty who built the eight-foot wide Plank Road from Chicago to Ottawa. This thoroughfare became what is now Ogden Avenue in South Berwyn. In 1856, Thomas F. Baldwin purchased 347 acres of land, in hopes of developing a rich and aristocratic community called “LaVergne.” [...]
Cicero
Ogden Avenue, a former Indian trail, was one of the early thoroughfares through Cicero. When the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad was built westward from Chicago in 1848, Cicero became the first western suburb connected to the city by rail. In 1869 Cicero was incorporated as a town. Cicero’s location on several rail lines influenced [...]
