Elgin Illinois Real Estate
Elgin, Illinois
By Julie Farby
Elgin, Illinois is a city located on the Fox River, about 35 miles northwest of the Chicago Loop. According to the 2000 census, with a population of about 94,487, Elgin is the eighth largest city in Illinois, and has the curious distinction of straddling two counties: most of Elgin lies within Kane County, Illinois, with a portion in Cook County. Profiled in a 1997 issue of Money Magazine as a “microcosm of the United States,” Elgin is a diverse and rapidly growing community. In fact, the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission forecasts “Elgin will have a population of 162,416 by 2030.”
Founded in 1836 by James T. Gifford and his brother Hezekiah Gifford, and named after the Scottish hymn “The Song of Elgin,” the city of Elgin was officially incorporated by the State of Illinois in 1856. Today, Elgin is a vibrant and diverse community, which despite its rapid development, still works hard to preserve its historic roots. Although it is one of the largest and fastest-growing cities in Illinois, Elgin still has some of the natural beauty and habitat diversity which first brought settlers to this area. The city is bordered on the East by the 4,200 acre Poplar Creek Preserve, maintained by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, “which includes bike trails, hiking trails and equestrian trails.”
Besides the quality of its tap water, which in the past ten years has been named both the “finest in Kane County and the finest in Illinois,” the city of Elgin is known for its historic architecture and landmarks from the Victorian era, “including some fine examples of homes in the Queen Anne style.” Predating Victorian homes were homes made of native cobblestone; it is believed that Elgin had at one time the largest concentration of cobblestone homes outside of Rochester, New York. Several such homes built by the earliest settlers still stand. They can be seen in Elgin's historic districts, “two of which are recognized by the National Register of Historic Places.”
According to Wikipedia.org, the city's Far West Development Strategy calls for “the construction of 14,000 homes on previously agricultural land west of Randall Road, which has become a major retail corridor connecting the Fox Valley.” Elgin's downtown area has also attracted developer interest. “Three large residential projects are expected to be completed in the downtown by 2007, at a total cost of more than $100 million.”
The new “460,000 volume-capacity library, completed at a cost of $30 million, as well as the city's $41 million recreational center, the Centre of Elgin,” has helped to renew homebuyer interest in the revitalized downtown. In the 1990s, Elgin became one of the few cities in northern Illinois to host a riverboat casino. The Grand Victoria Casino was initially controversial but has proven a significant source of income for the city. “Drawing nearly four million people annually, as of March 2005, it is the fifth most popular tourist attraction in Illinois.” The Grand Victoria Foundation, to which the casino has contributed an amount in excess of $116 million, is a major provider of community grants to nonprofits in the city.
Elgin is home to the Elgin Academy, the “oldest coeducational, non-sectarian college preparatory school west of the Allegheny Mountains,” as well as Elgin High School, which boasts five navy admirals, a Nobel Prize winner, a Pulitzer Prize winner, a Tony Award winner, and a General Motors CEO among its alumni. The city is served by Elgin Community College, one of the fastest-growing community colleges in the state, and Judson College, a four-year Christian college on the banks of the Fox River. Furthermore, Elgin's civic society is characterized by a “large, diverse, and effective group of grassroots organizations, a sense of community pride and a spirit of volunteerism and participation.”
In recognition of this, for the second time, Elgin won the National Civic League's prestigious All-America City Award in 2002.
-
Demographics:
- Population: 94, 487
- White: 70.49%
- Black: 6.80%
- Hispanic 34.32%
- Asian: 3.88%
- Islander: 0.66%
- Native: 0.40%
- Other: 15.39%
(*Percentages may total more than 100, due to certain races counting in more than one category)
- Per Capita Income: $21, 112
- Median House Value: $229,330