Lincolnwood, Illinois

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lincolnwood is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 12,359 at the 2000 census.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Demographics
4 External links

[edit] Geography

Lincolnwood is located at 42°0′19″N, 87°44′3″W (42.005331, -87.734283)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 7.0 km² (2.7 mi²), all land; however, the North Shore Sanitation Canal lies on its eastern border.

[edit] History

The history of Lincolnwood is described here by the Encyclopedia of Chicago: "Cook County, 10 miles NW of the Loop. Lincolnwood is an ethnically diverse, two-and-a-half-square-mile suburb. Potawatomi originally settled the wooded area, but vacated the land after the Indian Boundary Treaty of 1816. Rural development proceeded slowly on treacherous plank roads along present-day Milwaukee and Lincoln Avenues. Johann Tess, for whom the village was originally named, and his family came from Germany in 1856, purchasing 30 acres of barren land in the area. Population slowly increased, and the first commercial establishment, the Halfway House Saloon, was established in 1873.

The agrarian population grew after the establishment of a Chicago & North Western Railway station in nearby Skokie in 1891 and the completion of the North Shore Channel in 1909, which made the easily flooded prairie land manageable. More saloons and taverns soon appeared, specifically along Crawford and Lincoln Avenues. Because only organized municipalities could grant liquor licenses, 359 residents incorporated in 1911 and named the village Tessville. Tessville annexed land throughout the 1920s, finally stretching to Central Avenue on the west and Kedzie Avenue on the east. During Prohibition, Tessville became a haven for speakeasies and gambling facilities.

Tessville was long reputed for drinking and gambling until the 1931 election of its longest-serving mayor, Henry A. Proesel, a grandson of George Proesel, one of the original American settlers. In 1932, Lincoln Avenue, formerly a plank toll road, became a state highway. Proesel then worked with the federal government's Public Works Administration and hired the community's entire unemployed workforce to plant 10,000 elm trees on the village streets. Most important, the community passed a liquor license law (1934) that limited the number of licenses allowable within the city limits and became a model ordinance for other communities. Proesel finally changed Tessville's image when he renamed the village Lincolnwood in 1936.

Lincolnwood's institutions, industries, and clubs continued to grow along with the suburb. The Bryn Mawr Country Club (1919), the East Prairie Welfare Club, later to become the Lincolnwood Woman's Club (1927), the Lincolnwood Afternoon Club (1953), and the American Legion Post #1226 (1952) helped create a sense of community in the village. Lincolnwood School District 74 formed in 1938, and the Lincolnwood Public Library (1978) provided residents with quality education and offered much needed services. Bell & Howell's relocation to east Lincolnwood (1942) spurred growth and increased other industry relocation to the village. The Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation (1958)" In 2004, Lincolnwood opened the Proesel Park Family Aquatic Center. The Proesel Park Aquatic Center project was led by Dan Malartsik, Gail Ito and Judith Snyder.

The Purple Hotel, located at the corner of Lincoln Ave and Touhy Avenue, has a place in local lore. Its parking lot was where mobster Allen Dorfman died from an assassin's gunfire in 1983. The crime has never been solved. The Purple Hotel was built in 1960 by the Hyatt Corp. After it was a Hyatt, it became a Radisson, and finally a Ramada. Since 2004, it has been independent, simply calling itself by what locals have referred to it as years: the "Purple Hotel." The name came about because of the building's distinctive purple facade, somewhat radical for earth-toned suburbia. In 2006, the Village sued the owners of the Purple Hotel to because of health and safety code violations such as mold in guest rooms.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 12,359 people, 4,482 households, and 3,446 families residing in the village. The population density was 1,773.9/km² (4,599.7/mi²). There were 4,593 housing units at an average density of 659.2/km² (1,709.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the village was 74.53% White, 0.38% African American, 0.03% Native American, 21.08% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.23% from other races, and 2.73% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.18% of the population.

There were 4,482 households out of which 30.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 67.2% were married couples living together, 7.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.1% were non-families. 21.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.75 and the average family size was 3.22.

In the village the population was spread out with 22.9% under the age of 18, 6.6% from 18 to 24, 19.8% from 25 to 44, 26.7% from 45 to 64, and 23.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45 years. For every 100 females there were 89.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.4 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $71,234, and the median income for a family was $83,687. Males had a median income of $52,708 versus $40,098 for females. The per capita income for the village was $35,911. About 1.9% of families and 2.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.5% of those under age 18 and 3.3% of those age 65 or over.