Buffalo Grove, Illinois

Chicagoland municipality
muni-name = Buffalo Grove
muni = Village
date = 1958
state = Illinois
county = Cook/Lake
county2 = Lake
tcounty = Lake
township = Wheeling
township2 = Vernon
gov = Council-manager
head_label = President
gov_head = Elliott Hartstein
pop = 42,909
density-km = 1,802.7
density-mi = 4,666.9
status = up
percent = 17.79
prevyear = 1990
white = 88.70
black = 0.76
hispanic = 3.32
asian = 8.43
islander = 0.01
native = 0.06
other = 0.91
zips = 60089
acode = 847 and 224
area-km = 23.8
area-mi = 9.2
pci = 39,794
geocode = 09447
mhi = 80,525
mnhv = 360,000
mhv = 354,777 (2000)
website = www.vbg.org

Buffalo Grove is a village located in Northwest suburban Cook and Lake counties in Illinois, United States. The town was named for Buffalo Creek, which was itself named for bison bones found in the area. As of the 2000 census, the village population was 42,909. As of May 2007, signs welcoming visitors to Buffalo Grove show a population of 43,195.

Geography

Buffalo Grove is located at coor dms|42|9|59|N|87|57|48|W|city (42.166332, -87.963391).GR|1

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 9.2 square miles (23.9 km²), of which, 9.2 square miles (23.8 km²) of it is land and 0.04 square miles (0.1 km²) of it (0.22%) is water.

There are 50 parks and 45 miles of bike paths/sidewalks.

Demographics

As of the censusGR|2 of 2000, there were 42,909 people, 15,708 households, and 11,655 families residing in the village. The population density was 4,666.9 people per square mile (1,802.7/km²). There were 16,166 housing units at an average density of 1,758.2/sq mi (679.2/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 88.70% White, 0.76% African American, 0.06% Native American, 8.43% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.91% from other races, and 1.14% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.32% of the population.

There were 15,708 households out of which 42.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 66.0% were married couples living together, 6.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.8% were non-families. 22.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.72 and the average family size was 3.23.

In the village the population was spread out with 28.9% under the age of 18, 5.3% from 18 to 24, 32.2% from 25 to 44, 24.6% from 45 to 64, and 9.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 93.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.2 males.

The median income for a household in the village is $80,525, and the median income for a family is $92,583. Males have a median income of $63,107 versus $41,039 for females. The per capita income for the village is $39,794. 2.3% of the population and 1.3% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 2.6% are under the age of 18 and 2.2% are 65 or older.

There is a very large Jewish community, with 7 synagogues.

History

Illinois became a state in 1818. The Buffalo Grove area was opened for settlement after the Treaty of Chicago (1833) where the United Nation of Ojibwe, Ottawa and Potawatomi ceded their Illinois lands to the United States. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Chicago]

The first pioneers arrived in the Buffalo Grove area around 1834, and by the 1840s had established a small community."The History of Buffalo Grove," The Village of Buffalo Grove 50th Anniversary Committee, 2008]

The origin of the name "Buffalo Grove" is uncertain, but the traditional account is: "When the English, French, and Pottawatomi Indians were ranging through northeastern Illinois, so were the buffalo. The buffalo left the Wheeling woods in the morning and grazed their way diagonally to Long Grove. Noon found them in a grove of trees along the creek - drinking and resting. A buffalo skeleton was found beside the 'Buffalo Creek,' as it soon became called."

From early settlement to the 1950s, numerous dairy farms and cheese producers dotted the landscape. Througout most of the first half of the 1900's, Buffalo Grove served as a primary dairy producer for the Chicago area. The Weidner and Raupp families, along with other German Catholics, farmed in the region surrounding Saint Mary's Roman Catholic Church, just across the county line from the original development plat.

Buffalo Grove was incorporated as a village on March 7, 1958, with a population of 164. [a commerative booklet quoted in "The History of Buffalo Grove," The Village of Buffalo Grove 50th Anniversary Committee, 2008]

Buffalo Grove slowly began to build homes and businesses. In the 1950's, Al Frank, a developer, built hundreds of homes along Buffalo Grove Road, west along Bernard Drive as far as the current Park District headquarters, formerly Louisa May Alcott School. By 1961, houses west of Buffalo Creek and the school were added as far west as Greenwood Courts North and South, north through neighborhoods including Cherrywood and Cottonwood Roads and south through White Pine Road. These earliest homes, in the Cook County section of the village, are sometimes referred to as "Old Buffalo Grove". Older housing stock is often surrounded by larger, newer houses, apartments and condominiums due to pockets of formerly undeveloped farmland being surrounded by housing. Over time, these so-called "holdout parcels" were sold and developed.

The fledgling village grew rapidly in the 1960s with the development of Ranch Mart Shopping Center, near the corner of Buffalo Grove Road and Dundee Road (State Route 68). In the late '60s, the center contained a grocery store (Jewel Foods), a dime store (Hornsby's), a dry cleaner, a shoe store, and a pharmacy (Mark Drugs). Nearby, on Dundee Road, stood a bowling alley (originally "The Rose Bowl," later, "Striker Lanes"). In 1970, the enclosed Buffalo Grove Mall, including a grocery store ("Elm Farms," a subsidiary of National Tea), a dime store ("Scott's" of the TG&Y chain), an ice cream shop ("Baskin & Robbins") and a Radio Shack, opened. Both these complexes have undergone significant physical renovations and tenant changes in the intervening years.

Throughout the 1960's and 1970's more homes and businesses came up. Rising taxes, along with rapidly increasing land values, encouraged farm famiilies to sell farms for residential and commercial development. By the early 1970's Buffalo Grove had approximately 15,000 residents. During this time the city also grew in physical size, annexing significant land from nearby unincorporated areas, particularly in nearby Lake County. In 1992, the United States Postal Service established a free-standing post office in the village, and in 1996, METRA opened commuter rail service to Chicago. In 2005, the village had upwards of 43,000 people in it.

Today, the village is largely developed. Approximately one-quarter of the village's land area is reserved for nature preserves and parks. The village continues trying to annex land of unincorporated Prairie View (Vernon Township), which is surrounded by Buffalo Grove. The village maintains its efforts to receive Arlington Club, a former golf course on which apartments and condominiums were built in the 1980s.

Education

Four school districts and three high school districts serve Buffalo Grove. The majority of public high school students in Buffalo Grove live in the Cook county portion of Buffalo Grove attend Buffalo Grove High School. A smaller population of students residing in the Cook county portion of Buffalo Grove attend Wheeling High School. Those living in the Lake county portion of Buffalo Grove attend Adlai E. Stevenson High School.

Other districts and schools serving Buffalo Grove are:

[http://www.aptakisic.lake.k12.il.us/index.html Aptakisic-Tripp C C School District 102:]
* Aptakisic Junior High School
* Meridian Middle School
* Earl Pritchett School
* Tripp school

Kildeer Countryside C C School District 96:
* Twin Groves Middle School
* Woodlawn Middle School
* Kildeer Countryside Elementary School
* Prairie Elementary School
* Country Meadows Elementary School
* Ivy Hall Elementary School
* Willow Grove Kindergarten Center

Lincolnshire-Prairie View School District 103:
*Laura Sprague School
*Half Day School
*Daniel Wright Junior High School

Community Consolidated School District 21:
*James Whitcomb Riley Elementary School (K-5)
*Joyce Kilmer Elementary School (K-5)
*Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Elementary School
*Jack London Middle School (6-8)
*James Fenimore Cooper Middle School (6-8)

St. Mary School (Catholic Pre-school through 8th grade)

Libraries

Buffalo Grove is served by the Indian Trails Public Library District and the Vernon Area Public Library.

Transportation

Buffalo Grove has a station on Metra's North Central Service, which provides daily rail service between Antioch, Illinois and Chicago, Illinois (at Union Station).

Notable residents

* Andy Wozniewski, Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Marlies hockey player

See also

* The Corporate Grove

External links

* [http://www.vbg.org/ Village of Buffalo Grove official website]
* [http://chiBG.vibary.net/ The Vibary of Buffalo Grove local search and listings]
* [http://bghs.dist214.k12.il.us/ Buffalo Grove High School official website]
* [http://www.district125.k12.il.us/ Adlai E. Stevenson High School official website]
* [http://www.stmarybg.org/ St. Mary School official website]
* [http://www.vbg.org/enTouchCMS/app/viewDocument?docID=338&catgId=103 Buffalo Grove Days]

References