Glencoe Illinois Real Estate

Glencoe is a historic city located in Cook County, Illinois, situated about 19 miles north of Chicago’s downtown Loop. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the Village of Glencoe had a total population of approximately 8,762, and along with its suburban neighbors bordering Lake Michigan, is one of many towns that make up Chicago's affluent North Shore.

According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, “the origin of Glencoe's name remains shrouded in a variety of competing narratives”—the most likely being a combination of the geographic features of the wooded bluffs upon which the original town planners settled and the maiden name of former Chicago mayor Walter Gurnee's wife. And while there appears to be no “direct connection with the Scottish town of the same name, the north suburban village adopted the elder town's seal when it incorporated in 1869.” In 1869, the newly incorporated Village of Glencoe held some 150 people. According to census figures, the number more than doubled by 1880 and grew to 569 in the next ten years.

By the turn of the century, Glencoe began to deal with the same issues of municipal services that other North Shore communities were facing, and in many cases, teamed with its neighbors to meet the demand for amenities from its mostly middle-class inhabitants. According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, “In 1893, Glencoe received water from the pumping station in Winnetka until building its own in 1928. A sewage system was constructed in 1900 and was connected to the Chicago Sanitary District canals by 1913, and electricity came to the village by way of the Highland Park Electric Light Company in 1903.”

Glencoe's growth followed the pattern of many Chicago suburbs, “accelerating rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, with its population peaking at 10,542 in 1970.” Despite the growth, however, Glencoe's demography remained predominately affluent and white. Along with some of its North Shore neighbors, the village became home to a significant number of Chicago's Jewish population in the middle decades of the twentieth century. North Shore Congregation Israel was organized in 1920 and built its current landmark synagogue on Sheridan Road in 1964. In recent years, Glencoe's population has declined, falling to 8,762 in 2000—95 percent of whom were white—while incomes remained among the highest in the state and the country. In 1999 the median household income was $164,432. Partly due to the prestige of New Trier High School—the district's public school—the village remains attractive to families, with 46 percent of households having children under 18.

Today, Glencoe is a vibrant community, perhaps best known for its stunning architectural styles and unique homes. In fact, in early 1991 the Glencoe Village Board, “sensitive to growing concern over the tearing down of historic homes, created the Historic Preservation Commission, which is charged with public education on the architectural treasures of the town and identifying and nominating for designation architecturally significant homes.” Since its inception, the commission has created an architectural map with walking tours that highlight 96 significant structures, co-sponsored a Frank Lloyd Wright North tour and honored the owners of designated landmark homes. While a number of Midwestern towns (Oak Park, Ill., and Madison, Wisconsin to name a few) can boast houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, only Glencoe has a whole subdivision, giving it the third largest collection of Wright houses in the world.

Demographics:
• Population (2000): 8,762
• White: 95.07%
• African American: 2.01%
• Native American: 0.05%
• Asian: 1.68%
• Other: 0.26%
• Hispanic/Latino: 1.23%
• Median income for a household: $164,432
• Median income for a family: $200,000+
• Per capita income: $88,059

* According to American Demographics magazine, in April of 2005, Glencoe's zip code (60022) was named the 22nd most affluent zip code in the U.S.