Lansing, Illinois

ILLINOIS FOX POINTE OPENS L ansing, Illinois, a village in Cook County, is a southern suburb of Chicago. It was first settled in the mid- 1800s, primarily by Dutch and German immigrants who came to the area to build homes, farms, and businesses. In the late 19th century, brickyards dominated Lansing’s economy, and the Village supplied much of the brick to rebuild Chicago after the Chicago Fire of 1871. While onions, tomatoes, beets, spinach, and cabbage were common crops grown on its farms, it was onions that were most prominent; the suburban Chicago area supplied 80 percent of the country’s onion sets in the 1930s and 1940s. Today, in addition to being a bedroom community of Chicago, Lansing has a significant retail base, and is also home to some light manufacturing and distribution companies. The Village also has a viable downtown with lots of old shops and the newly completed Park Plaza, located on the site of an old railroad line at the southwest corner of Ridge Road, the Village’s main thoroughfare, and Burnham Avenue, that hosts a farmers’ market during summer months. AT A GLANCE LANSING, ILLINOIS WHAT: A village of 30,000 WHERE: Cook County, seven miles south of Chicago WEBSITE: www.villageoflansing.org