June 2018

136 137 ELMHURST, ILLINOIS ELMHURST, ILLINOIS CLOSE TO EVERYTHING, UNLIKE ANYTHING E lmhurst, Illinois, is a subur- ban city of approximately 46,300 in DuPage County. Settlement began in the 1830s and ‘40s, after the end of the Black Hawk War and the Treaty of Chicago. At what would later be- come Elmhurst City Centre, a native of Ohio named Gerry Bates estab- lished a community on a tract of “treeless land” in 1842. The follow- ing year, Hill Cottage Tavern opened where St. Charles Road and Cottage Hill Avenue presently intersect, and in 1845, the community was officially named Cottage Hill when a post office was established. The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad line reached the area by 1849, with the locomotive Pioneer making its first run to the area on July 4, 1849. The community changed its name AT A GLANCE ELMHURST, ILLINOIS WHAT: A city of approximately 46,300 WHERE: In DuPage County, west of Chicago WEBSITE: www.elmhurst.org