Interstate 55 in Illinois
Interstate 55 is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the U. S. state of Illinois that connects the St. Louis and Chicago metropolitan areas, it enters the state from Missouri on the Poplar Street Bridge near East St. Louis and runs to U. S. Route 41 near downtown Chicago; the Road runs through the cities of Springfield and Joliet. The section in DuPage County is named Joliet Freeway or Will Rogers Freeway and in Cook County is named the Stevenson Expressway. I-55 within Illinois carries heavy traffic, with an average of more than 20,000 vehicles per day for most of its length. Significant portions of I-55 contain six lanes and are used by commuters. I-55 in Illinois begins in East St. Louis on the Poplar Street Bridge over the Mississippi River at the Missouri–Illinois state line and runs southwest to northeast through the state, ending in Chicago at US 41. Along the way, it goes through four metropolitan areas in the state: the Illinois portion of the St. Louis metropolitan area, the Springfield metropolitan area, the Bloomington-Normal metropolitan area, the Chicago metropolitan area.
I-55 enters the Chicago metro area as the Stevenson Expressway and provides easy access to downtown Chicago via both the I-90/I-94 interchange and US 41 at the northern terminus of I-55, near Cermak Road and the lakefront. I-55 in Illinois is the fourth road to connect St. Chicago; the first was the Pontiac Trail in 1915. This was improved and paved as the new Illinois Route 4 by 1924. In 1926, IL 4 was designated as the route of the new U. S 66, a new section of US 66 was built to bypass slower sections of IL 4 south of Springfield by 1930. Through the 1950s US 66 was continually widened and improved to handle its growing traffic, until its entire length was four lanes wide by 1957; the roots of I-55 could be traced back to the need of a national highway system. President Dwight D. Eisenhower saw the need of a national network of highways that would help with the mobilization of the army, he had been impressed with the autobahn he saw in Germany during World War II. In 1956 he signed the Federal Aid Highway Act into existence.
Although the act provided for a highway replacing Route 66, it was spared destruction for a while because of it being more modern than other routes at the time. Illinois would build its first new Interstate highways on other routes such as I-80, I-57, I-70, before turning its attention once again to the St. Louis-to-Chicago route. However, during the 1970s, Route 66 was replaced by I-55 as the fourth St. Louis-to-Chicago highway, serving most of the same communities along the way as the original Pontiac Trail, it was built in sections across Illinois on the original Route 66 roadbed. A common construction tactic where Route 66 was four lanes wide, was to build new southbound lanes for I-55 west of the original road rebuild the original southbound lanes of US 66 to be the new northbound lanes for I-55, leaving the original northbound lanes of old US 66 as a two-way frontage road. One can find many signs posted for Historic US 66 where it deviates from I-55; the earliest stretch of I-55 was a portion of US 66, built as a freeway between Gardner and I-294 in Indian Head Park, and, added to the Interstate system by erecting new signs in 1960.
Portions of the highway were built in the 1960s between East St. Louis and Hamel, as bypasses of Springfield and Bloomington-Normal; the rest of the road was completed in the 1970s. The Stevenson Expressway opened on October 1964 as the Southwest Expressway, it was renamed after Adlai Stevenson, the former governor of Illinois, on September 1, 1965, a month and a half after his death. The Stevenson's original termini were US 66 in DuPage County to the west, the Dan Ryan Expressway to the east. In 1999–2000, the expressway was rebuilt from Central Avenue north to Lake Shore Drive, including the ramps to the Dan Ryan; the Illinois Department of Transportation was criticized at the time for not adding a fourth lane in each direction to the highway. In 2017, the Illinois General Assembly voted to rename 70 miles of I-55 from the Tri-State Tollway to Pontiac in honor of Barack Obama; because of the heavy traffic on I-55, IDOT spends millions of dollars per year maintaining the roadway, adding lanes, replacing bridges to increase the capacity of the highway.
In northeastern Illinois near Joliet, a widening project that expanded I-55 from two to three lanes in each direction between I-80 and Weber Road was completed on October 29, 2008. In the 2000s decade, the Damen Avenue and Pulaski Road interchanges were rebuilt as a single-point urban interchange configuration; the Arsenal Road interchange was under complete rebuilding and reconfiguration as of 2012, the deteriorated overpass at IL 129 was removed in 2012 in anticipation of future construction of a full interchange, temporarily leaving the IL 129 interchange with only a northbound exit and northbound entrance. At St. Louis, the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge carrying I-70 across the Mississippi River, costing $667 million, was completed in 2014 to relieve congestion on I-55's Poplar Street Bridge. Governor Bruce Rauner, in early 2016, made a proposal to explore expanding the Stevenson Expressway portion of I-55 by adding an additional lane
Illinois State Toll Highway Authority
The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority is an administrative agency of the State of Illinois in the United States. The roads, as well as the authority itself, are sometimes referred to as the Illinois Tollway; the system opened in 1958 in the Chicago area, has subsequently expanded to include the eastern and central sections of Interstate 88 extending into the northwestern part of the state. Beginning in 2005, the system was reconstructed to include more lanes and open road tolling, the latter of which uses I-Pass transponders to collect revenue as vehicles pass antennas at toll plazas or designated entrance or exit ramps; as of 2017, ISTHA operates 294 miles of tollways in 12 counties in Northern Illinois. The original Toll Highway Authority was established in 1941. After construction of the first toll highways in Illinois was delayed by World War II, the Illinois State Toll Highway Commission was established in 1953; the first three toll highways in the Chicago area were all planned and opened in 1958 under the authority of this Commission.
These first three toll highways are the present day Jane Addams Memorial Tollway, the Tri-State Tollway and the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway. The first segment to open was the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway between Devon Avenue and Elgin on August 20, 1958 at 3 p.m. The Toll Highway Act, in its present form, has been amended since. Under this Act, promulgated April 1, 1968, ISTHA assumed the assets and obligations of the Illinois State Toll Highway Commission. In the 1970s, the East–West Tollway was extended west from Sugar Grove to Dixon with a freeway continuing to the Quad Cities; the route was given the I-88 designation in order to obtain a higher speed limit. In 2004, ISTHA voted to rename this route the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway. In June 1984, Republican minority leader of the Illinois House of Representatives, James "Pate" Philip, helped push through legislation authorizing the construction of the North–South Tollway referred to as the DuPage Tollway. Officials at the Morton Arboretum, one of the nation's premier woodland research centers, promptly filed a federal lawsuit to block construction of the tollway.
They promised to prevent the tollway authority from obtaining environmental approval from federal officials. The lawsuit was settled, I-355 was opened in 1989 as a tollway between Army Trail Road and I-55 near Bollingbrook. On November 24, 2007, a 12.5 miles extension of I-355 opened to link I-55 to I-80. Construction of that I-355 extension began after years of environmental litigation; the Illinois Tollway website launched on September 1, 1997. The website includes online ordering of managing I-Pass accounts. In 2009-2010, the website underwent a $4.4 million e-commerce overhaul. In 2004, ISTHA made a strategic decision to expand and improve the tollway system instead of converting the roads to freeways, it adopted a $6.3 billion Congestion Relief Program. Under the program, the main toll plazas were rebuilt to have open road tolling, so that drivers with transponders would drive at normal speeds under toll collecting equipment instead of stopping to pay tolls; the toll plazas were relocated to the side of the road to handle vehicles without transponders.
The plan included rebuilding and widening many of the toll roads, including most of the original portion of I-88 and the northern and southern sections of I-294. I-355 was extended south of I-55 to connect to I-80 in New Lenox, a distance of 12.5 miles, in order to serve fast-growing areas of Will County. The project includes adding an interchange between the Tri-State Tollway and I-57; these improvements were financed by long-term revenue bonds that require the system to remain as toll roads until the bonds are repaid in 2034. The Congestion Relief Program was followed by another 15 year capital program named Move Illinois. Approved by ISTHA in 2011, the $14 billion capital program will address the remaining needs of tollway system not addressed by the Congestion Relief Program, as well as construct several new projects; the program is expected to add $21 billion to the economy. The projects in Move Illinois include reconstructing and widening I-90 between Rockford and the Kennedy Expressway as well as I-294 between Balmoral Ave and 95th Street.
The Tollway's board of directors has eleven members. The Governor of Illinois and the head of the Illinois Department of Transportation serve as ex officio members of the Tollway Board; the remaining 9 members are named by the governor. No more than 5 appointed members may be of the same political party as the governor; the Authority has the power to collect and raise tolls, is responsible for the maintenance and construction of tollway roads and related signage. The Tollway supervises and manages the seven Illinois Tollway oases; the close relationship between the governor and the near-majority of appointed board members has led to numerous allegations of endemic corruption throughout the tollway authority's lifetime. The ISTHA's annual budget for fiscal year 2010 totals $696 million; the ISTHA has 1,704 full-time employees. As of January 1, 2010, ISTHA has $4,074,675,000 in bond debt, which have been rated Aa3, AA- and AA- by Moody’s Investors Service, Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's, respectively.
The ISTHA
Cook County, Illinois
Cook County is a county in the U. S. state of Illinois. It is the second-most populous county in the United States after California; as of 2017, the population was 5,211,263. Its county seat is Chicago, the largest city in Illinois and the third-most populous city in the United States. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live in Cook County. Cook County's population is larger than that of 28 individual U. S. states, the combined populations of the seven smallest states. There are 135 incorporated municipalities or wholly within Cook County, the largest of, Chicago, home to 54% of the population of the county; that part of the county which lies outside the Chicago city limits is divided into 29 townships. Geographically, the county is the sixth-largest in Illinois by land area, it shares the state's Lake Michigan shoreline with Lake County. Including its lake area, the county has a total area of 1,635 square miles, the largest county in Illinois, of which 945 square miles is land and 690 square miles is water.
Land-use in Cook County is urban and densely populated. Cook County is included in the Chicago–Naperville–Elgin, IL–IN–WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, it is surrounded by. Cook County was created on January 15, 1831, out of Putnam County by an act of the Illinois General Assembly, it was the 54th county established in Illinois and was named after Daniel Cook, one of the earliest and youngest statesmen in Illinois history. He served as the second U. S. Representative from Illinois and the state's first Attorney General. In 1839, DuPage County was carved out of Cook County; the government of Cook County is composed of the Board of Commissioners, other elected officials such as the Sheriff, State's Attorney, Board of Review, Assessor, Circuit Court judges, Circuit Court Clerk, as well as numerous other officers and entities. Cook County is the only home rule county in Illinois; the Cook County Code is the codification of Cook County's local ordinances. Cook County's current County Board president is Toni Preckwinkle.
The Circuit Court of Cook County, an Illinois state court of general jurisdiction is funded, in part, by Cook County, accepts more than 1.2 million cases each year for filing. The Cook County Department of Corrections known as the Cook County Jail, is the largest single-site jail in the nation; the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, under the authority of the Chief Judge of the court, is the first juvenile center in the nation and one of the largest in the nation. The Cook County Law Library is the second-largest county law library in the nation. In the 1980s, Cook County was ground zero to an extensive FBI investigation called Operation Greylord. Ninety-two officials were indicted, including 17 judges, 48 lawyers, 8 policemen, 10 deputy sheriffs, 8 court officials, a state legislator; the Bureau of Health Services administers the county's public health services and is the third-largest public health system in the nation. Three hospitals are part of this system: Jr.. Hospital of Cook County, Provident Hospital, Oak Forest Hospital of Cook County, along with over 30 clinics.
The Cook County Department of Transportation is responsible for the design and maintenance of roadways in the county. These thoroughfares are composed of major and minor arterials, with a few local roads. Although the County Department of Transportation was instrumental in designing many of the expressways in the county, today they are under the jurisdiction of the state; the Cook County Forest Preserves, organized in 1915, is a separate, independent taxing body, but the Cook County Board of Commissioners acts as its Board of Commissioners. The district is a belt of 69,000 acres of forest reservations surrounding the city of Chicago; the Brookfield Zoo and the Chicago Botanic Garden are located in the forest preserves. Cook County is the fifth-largest employer in Chicago. In March 2008, the County Board increased the sales tax by one percent to 1.75 percent. This followed a quarter-cent increase in mass transit taxes. In Chicago, the rate increased to 10.25 percent, the steepest nominal rate of any major metropolitan area in America.
In Evanston, sales tax reached Oak Lawn residents pay 9.5 percent. On July 22, 2008, the Cook County board voted against Cook County Commissioner's proposal to repeal the tax increase. In 2016, Cook County joined Chicago in adopting a $13 hourly minimum wage. Cook County Board chairman John Daley called the wage hike "the moral and right thing to do." In June 2017, nearly 75 home rule municipalities passed measures opting themselves out of the increase. The county has more Democratic Party members than any other Illinois county and it is one of the most Democratic counties in the United States. Since 1932, the majority of its voters have only supported a Republican candidate in a Presidential election three times, all during national Republican landslides–Dwight Eisenhower over native son Adlai Stevenson II in 1952 and 1956, Richard Nixon over George McGovern in 1972. Since the closest a Republican has come to carrying the county was in 1984, when Ronald Reagan won 48.4 percent of the county's vote.
The 1970 Illinois Constitution allows the party controlling the state legislature to redraw voting districts. The Democrats won complete control of state government in 2003. S. House of Repre
U.S. Route 60 in Illinois
U. S. Route 60 and U. S. Route 62 run for a short distance within the state of Illinois, they follow the same road for their entire existence within the state. They run around Fort Defiance in Cairo, it runs from the Cairo Mississippi River Bridge over the Mississippi River east to the Cairo Ohio River Bridge over the Ohio River. The bridges cross the two rivers just north of the mouth of the Ohio. US 60/US 62 enter Illinois via the Cairo Mississippi River Bridge, a narrow, through truss bridge; the bridge deposits the two highways onto a viaduct which rises above farmland in the alluvial plain. At the northern end of the causeway is the entrance to Fort Defiance Park, a former Civil War military post and state park. Fort Defiance marks the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and Illinois' southernmost and lowest points; the lone intersection for US 60/US 62 is with US 51. The three highways come together to head northeast and rise onto the Cairo Ohio River Bridge and into Kentucky; the Great River Road's National Route overlaps US 60/US 62 from the intersection with US 51 to the Kentucky state line.
Until the Mississippi River Bridge opened c. 1929, US 60 used a ferry directly from Bird's Point, Missouri across that river to Wickliffe, Kentucky. After that it ran into Cairo and used a ferry from 22nd Street to East Cairo, Kentucky. US 62 was designated around 1930, the Ohio River Bridge replaced the ferry in 1937; the Mississippi River bridge opened in 1929. It was a boon to economies of Northern Arkansas; the toll drivers would have had to pay on the Mississippi bridge was $1.40. Meanwhile, the Ohio River bridge was delayed. An Act of Congress gave them more time, it was dedicated on November 11, 1938, made toll free ten years later. It had a cost of $3 million; the entire route is in Alexander County. Fort Defiance Illinois. Miss and Ohio Rivers on YouTube Visitors Guide to the Fort Defiance Park at Greatriverroad.com
DuPage County, Illinois
DuPage County is a county in the U. S. state of Illinois, one of the collar counties of the Chicago metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 916,924, its county seat is Wheaton. DuPage County has become developed and suburbanized, although some pockets of farmland remain in the county's western and northern parts; the county has a high socioeconomic profile and residents of Hinsdale and Oak Brook include some of the wealthiest people in the Midwest. On the whole, the county enjoys above average median household income levels and low overall poverty levels when compared to the national average. In 2018 Niche ranked two DuPage municipalities amongst the top 20 best places to live in America. DuPage County was formed on February 1839 out of Cook County; the county took its name from the DuPage River, which was, in turn, named after a French fur trapper, DuPage. The first written history to address the name, the 1882 History of DuPage County, Illinois, by Rufus Blanchard, relates: The DuPage River had, from time immemorial, been a stream well known.
It took its name from a French trader who settled on this stream below the fork previous to 1800. Hon. H. W. Blodgett, of Waukegan, informs the writer that J. B. Beaubien had spoken to him of the old Frenchman, Du Page, whose station was on the bank of the river, down toward its mouth, stated that the river took its name from him; the county name must have the same origin. Col Gurden S. Hubbard, who came into the country in 1818, informs the writer that the name DuPage, as applied to the river was universally known, but the trader for whom it was named lived there before his time. Mr. Beaubien says; this was in reply to Mr. Blodgett’s inquiry of him concerning the matter; the first white settler in DuPage County was Bailey Hobson, with Lewis Stewart, built a house in 1831 for the Hobson family at a site about 2 miles south of present-day downtown Naperville. Hobson built a mill to serve surrounding farmers. Today, the Hobson house still stands on Hobson Road in Naperville, the location of the mill is commemorated with a millstone and monument in today’s Pioneer Park.
According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 336 square miles, of which 327 square miles is land and 8.9 square miles is water. The DuPage River and the Salt Creek flow through DuPage County. According to the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, the highest point in the county is located at the Mallard Lake Landfill, which at its highest point is 982 feet above mean sea level. In recent years, average temperatures in the county seat of Wheaton have ranged from a low of 14 °F in January to a high of 87 °F in July, although a record low of −26 °F was recorded in January 1985 and a record high of 105 °F was recorded in July 1995. Average monthly precipitation ranged from 1.56 inches in February to 4.60 inches in August. Counties that are adjacent to DuPage include: Cook County Will County Kendall County Kane County I-55 I-88 I-290 I-294 I-355 US 20 US 34 IL 19 IL 38 IL 53 IL 56 IL 59 IL 64 IL 83 IL 390 DuPage County's population's distribution by race and ethnicity in the 2010 census was as follows: DuPage County has become more diverse.
The population of foreign-born residents increased from about 71,300 in 1990 to 171,000 by 2009 estimates. There were 325,601 households, out of which 37.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.90% were married couples living together, 7.90% had a female householder with no husband present and 28.00% were non-families. 22.90% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.80% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.73 and the average family size was 3.27. In the county, the population was spread out with 26.70% under the age of 18, 8.20% from 18 to 24, 32.40% from 25 to 44, 22.80% from 45 to 64 and 9.80% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.20 males. For every 100 females, age 18 and over, there were 94.20 males. The median income for a household in the county was $98,441 and the median income for a family was $113,086. Males had a median income of $60,909 versus $41,346 for females.
The mean or average income for a family in DuPage County is $121,009, according to the 2005 census. The per capita income for the county was $38,458. About 2.40% of families and 3.60% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.90% of those under age 18 and 4.30% of those age 65 or over. DuPage County has several hundred Christian churches. Well-known churches include Community Christian Church of Naperville, College Church of Wheaton, Wheaton Bible Church, First Baptist Church of Wheaton. There is a large Catholic contingency, part of the Diocese of Joliet, a Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Glendale Heights; the Theosophical Society in America in Wheaton, the North American headquarters of the Theosophical Society Adyar, provides lectures and classes on theosophy, yoga and New Age spirituality. Islamic mosques are located in Villa Park, Glendale Heights, Westmont, Bolingbrook, Woodale, West Chicago, unincorporated Glen Ellyn. There are Hindu temples in Bartlett, Bloomingdale, Carol Stream and Medinah, an Arya Samaj center in West Chicago.
There is a Nichiren Shōshū Zen Buddhist temple in West Chicago and a Theravada Buddhist Temple, called the Budd
Fox River (Illinois River tributary)
The Fox River is a 202-mile-long tributary of the Illinois River, flowing from southeastern Wisconsin to Ottawa, Illinois in the United States. The Wisconsin section was known as the Pishtaka River in the 19th century. There are two other "Fox Rivers" in southern Illinois: the Fox River and a smaller "Fox River" that joins the Wabash River near New Harmony, Indiana; the Fox River rises in the Halbach Swamp, 1 mi southeast of the community of Colgate and flows past Brookfield, Big Bend, Rochester, Wheatland, Silver Lake and Wilmot, for a total of 84 miles in Wisconsin. A major dam in Waterford forms a 1,200-acre navigable waterway, one of the busiest in southeastern Wisconsin; the river is navigable from the Iron Bridge in Tichigan, Wisconsin down to the dam. The river connects several small lakes in this section, one large lake, Tichigan Lake and one smaller lake, Buena Lake; the entire area including connected lakes and the Fox are referred to as Tichigan Lake. At the southern end of this section, Foxwood Isle separates the main dam to its west and a spillway to the east.
A small dam is present just a few miles south in downtown Rochester. The river flows unobstructed through Burlington, where it joins the White River, on to Wilmot; this is a popular and picturesque day-canoe trip never straying far from the road, but just out of sight of it. Flooding is common on this section of the river near Wheatland to the border; the river enters Illinois where it widens into a large area of interconnected lakes known as the Chain O'Lakes. Fox Lake is the largest village in this area. From the chain, the river flows southward for 118 miles, until it joins the Illinois River at Ottawa. Illinois towns and communities that are on the Fox River include: Fox Lake, Johnsburg, McHenry, Holiday Hills, Island Lake, Burtons Bridge, Port Barrington, Fox River Grove, Carpentersville, West Dundee, East Dundee, South Elgin, St. Charles, Batavia, North Aurora, Montgomery, Yorkville, Millington and Ottawa. Collectively, the area surrounding the Fox River is known as the Fox Valley. Around 1 million people live in this area.
Native American tribes that lived near the Fox River included the Potawatomi and Fox tribes. The Fox River has 15 dams, including McHenry Dam, which raises the river to maintain depth in the Chain O'Lakes in northern Illinois, a hydroelectric dam near Ottawa. In the winter, bald eagles can be found nesting along the banks. Early in the history of Illinois, the Fox River provided water for the Illinois and Michigan Canal via a feeder canal, allowing the canal to pass over the Fox River on an aqueduct. In 1996, a flood damaged the Farnsworth House in Illinois, a residence designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1952, it received substantial damage through the failure of one of the house's windows. In 1998, winter melt sent water downstream too fast for the still frozen ground to be able to handle without flooding the valley. In 2008, the remnants of Hurricane Ike moved north into Illinois, releasing a massive amount of water in the Fox River Valley. List of rivers of Illinois List of rivers of Wisconsin Fox River Trail Tri-Cities, Illinois James F. Phillips Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources Watershed - Lower Fox River - Illinois Watershed - Middle Fox River - Illinois Watershed - Upper Fox River - Illinois Fox River Paddling/Fishing page Friends of the Fox River Fox River Ecosystem Partnership Fox River CAUSE Southeast Fox River Partnership
Barrington, Illinois
Barrington is an affluent suburban village in Cook County and Lake County, United States. The population was 10,327 at the 2010 census. Located 32 miles northwest of Chicago, the area features wetlands, forest preserves and horse trails in a country-suburban setting; the Barrington area ZIP code, 60010, is the seventh-wealthiest ZIP code in the United States among areas with a population of 20,000 or more. Barrington is part of the Chicago metropolitan area and serves as the hub of activity for the surrounding 90-square-mile region which consists of six independent villages including North Barrington, South Barrington, Barrington Hills, Lake Barrington and Tower Lakes, as well as small portions of Carpentersville, Deer Park, Hoffman Estates, Inverness; the village's motto is "a great place to live and play!" The original settlers of the Barrington area were the indigenous peoples of the Native American Prairie Potawatomi or Mascoutin tribes, which divided into the Potawatomi and Ottawa tribes.
Many local roads still in use today, including Algonquin Road, Rand Road, Higgins Road, St. Charles Road, were Native American trails. For many years, Barrington was considered part of the Northwest Territory the Illinois Territory. By treaty dated September 26, 1833, ending the Black Hawk War, the Chippewa and Potawatomi tribes ceded to the United States all lands from the west shore of Lake Michigan west to the area that the Winnebago tribe ceded in 1832, north to the area that the Menominees had ceded to the United States, south to the area ceded by an 1829 treaty at Prairie du Chien, a total of 5,000,000 acres. Through this treaty, the Sacs, Winnebago, Chippewa and Pottawatomi tribes ceded all title to the area east of the Mississippi River. Between 1833 and 1835, the U. S. government paid $100,000 in annuities and grants to the Potawatomi and Chippewa tribes as payment for the land. Following this treaty, pioneers traveling from Troy, New York, via Fort Dearborn to live in Cuba Township in Lake County.
The first white pioneers known to have settled in Barrington township were Jesse F. Miller and William Van Orsdal of Steuben County, New York, who arrived in 1834, before the three-year period, given the Native Americans to vacate the region, before local land surveys. Other settlers from Vermont and New York settled in; the combined settlement of these pioneers, located at the intersection of Illinois Route 68 and Sutton Road, was called Miller Grove due to the number of families with that surname but renamed Barrington Center because it "centered" both ways from the present Sutton Road and from Algonquin and Higgins roads. Although residents and historians agree that the name Barrington was taken from Great Barrington in Berkshire County and that many settlers immigrated to the area from Berkshire County, there is no evidence that settlers emigrated from Great Barrington itself. In addition, several original settlers, including Miller, Van Orsdal, John W. Seymour, emigrated from Steuben County, New York, which features a town named Barrington founded in 1822.
However, it is unknown whether any settlers emigrated from Barrington, New York, itself or whether the New York settlement influenced the naming of Barrington, Illinois. Much of the history of Barrington since its settlement parallels the development of railroad lines from the port facilities in Chicago. In 1854, the Chicago, St. Paul & Fond du Lac Railroad, led by William Butler Ogden, extended the train line to the northwest corner of Cook County and built a station named Deer Grove. In 1854, Robert Campbell, a civil engineer who worked for the railroad, purchased a farm 2 miles northwest of the Deer Grove station and platted a community on the property. Deer Grove residents protested, at Campbell's request, the railroad moved the Deer Grove station near its current location, which Campbell named Barrington after Barrington Center. In 1855, the village's first lumber facility began operations on Franklin Street. By 1863, population growth during the Civil War era increased the number of Barrington residents to 300.
In order to provide a tax mechanism to finance improvements, Barrington submitted its request for incorporation in 1863. Delays due to the Civil War resulted in the appropriate incorporation deeds not returning to Barrington for nearly two years; the Illinois legislature granted Barrington's charter on February 16, 1865. The Village held its first Board meeting on March 20, 1865 and appointed resident Homer Wilmarth as Mayor for one year. In 1866, resident Milius B. McIntosh became the first elected Village President. In 1889, the Elgin and Eastern Railway was built through Barrington, crossing what is now the Union Pacific/Northwest Line northwest of town. In the late 19th century, a series of fires damaged numerous downtown buildings. In 1890, fire swept along the north side of East Main Street east of what is now the Union Pacific/Northwest Line, destroying several buildings. In 1893, another fire destroyed most of the block, now Park Avenue, in 1898 a fire destroyed several buildings along the north side of Main Street from Hough Street to the Northwest Line railroad tracks.
As a result of these fires, residents replaced the burned frame structures with more substantial brick and stone buildings, many of which remain in use today. At the beginning of the 20th century, the village streets were unpaved, although the downtown area had
I-55 in Shorewood
US 52 in Shorewood
US 30 in Plainfield
US 34 in Aurora
I-88 / IL 110 (CKC) in Naperville
US 20 in Bartlett
I-90 in Hoffman Estates
US 14 in Barrington
US 12 in Wauconda
IL 173 in Antioch
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I-55 south (Will Rogers Highway) / Historic US 66 west – Normal, Bloomington, St. Louis
CR 5 (Caton Farm Road)
CR 36 east (Renwick Road)
US 30 east / Lincoln Highway east (Joliet Road)
CR 66 east (111th Street, Hassert Boulevard)
CR 89 east (95th Street)
CR 33 (75th Street)
CR 3 (Ferry Road)
IL 56 (Butterfield Road)
IL 38 (Roosevelt Road)
CR 21 east (Washington Street)
IL 64 (North Avenue)
CR 11 (Army Trail Road)
CR 29 (Stearns Road)
IL 19 (Irving Park Road)
IL 58 (Golf Road)
IL 72 (Higgins Road)
IL 62 / IL 68 west (Algonquin Road)
IL 22
CR A42 (Miller Road)
CR V49 south (Kelsey Road)
IL 176 (Liberty Street, Wauconda Road)
IL 120 (Belvidere Road)
IL 134 east (Big Hollow Road) / CR A26 west
CR A18 east (Monaville Road)
IL 132 east (Grand Avenue)
CR A12 east (Petite Lake Road)
CR A10 (Grass Lake Road)