Libertyville, Illinois

The land that is now Libertyville was the property of the Illinois River Potawatomi Indians until August 1829, when economic and resource pressures forced the tribe to sell much of their land in northern Illinois to the U.S. government for $12,000 cash, an additional $12,000 in goods, plus an annual delivery of 50 barrels of salt.^[5]

Pursuant to the treaty, the Potawatomi left their lands by the mid-1830s,^[6] and by 1835 the future Libertyville had its first recorded non-indigenous resident, George Vardin. Said to be ^{[citation needed]} a "well-educated" English immigrant with a wife and a young daughter, Vardin lived in a cabin located where the Cook Park branch of the Cook Memorial Public Library District stands today. Though he apparently moved on to the west that same year, the settlement that grew up around his cabin was initially known as Vardin's Grove.^[7]

In 1836, during the celebrations that marked the 60th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the community voted to name itself Independence Grove. 1837 brought the town's first practicing physician, Jesse Foster, followed quickly by its first lawyer, Horace Butler, for whom Butler Lake is named.^[7] The professionals needed services, so a post office opened, necessitating a third name change, because another Independence Grove existed elsewhere in the state. On April 16, 1837, the new post office was registered under the name Libertyville.

The town's name changed again two years later to Burlington when it became the county seat of Lake County. When the county seat moved to Little Fort (now Waukegan) in 1841, the name reverted to Libertyville, without further changes.^[8]

Libertyville's most prominent building, the Cook Mansion, was built in 1879 by Ansel Brainerd Cook, very close to the spot where Vardin's cabin was built in the 1830s. Cook, a teacher and stonemason, became a prominent Chicago builder and politician, providing flagstones for the city's sidewalks and taking part in rebuilding after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The two-story Victorian mansion served as Cook's summer home as well as the center of his horse farm, which provided animals for Chicago's horsecar lines. The building was remodeled in 1921, when it became the town library, gaining a Colonial-style facade with a pillared portico. The building is now a museum with furnishings of the period and other relevant displays. It is operated by the Libertyville-Mundelein Historical Society.

The community expanded rapidly with a spur of the Milwaukee Road train line (now a Metra commuter line) reaching Libertyville in 1881, resulting in the incorporation of the Village of Libertyville in 1882, with John Locke its first village president.^[8]

Libertyville's downtown area was largely destroyed by fire in 1895,^[9] and the village board mandated brick to be used for reconstruction, resulting in a village center whose architecture is substantially unified by both period and building material.^[9] The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which gave Libertyville a Great American Main Street Award, called the downtown "a place with its own sense of self, where people still stroll the streets on a Saturday night, and where the tailor, the hometown bakery, and the vacuum cleaner repair shop are shoulder to shoulder with gourmet coffee vendors and a microbrewery. If it's Thursday between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m., it's Farmer's Market time (June–October) on Church Street across from Cook Park -- a tradition for more than three decades."^[10]

Samuel Insull, founder of Commonwealth Edison, began purchasing land south of Libertyville in 1906. He eventually acquired 4,445 acres (17.99 km²), a holding that he named Hawthorn-Mellody Farms. He also bought the Chicago & Milwaukee Electric line (later the Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee), which built a spur from Lake Bluff to Libertyville in 1903. When Insull was ruined by the Great Depression, parts of his estate were bought by prominent Chicagoans Adlai Stevenson and John F. Cuneo.^[9] The home Cuneo built is now the Cuneo Museum.

From 1970 until 2013, Libertyville was the resting place of the only European monarch buried on American soil, Peter II of Yugoslavia, who died in exile in Denver. On 22 January 2013, Peter II's remains were removed from his tomb at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Monastery and sent to Serbia in a ceremony attended by the Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dačić, Peter's son Alexander with his family, and Serbian Patriarch Irinej.^[11][12] Peter II lay in state in the Royal Chapel in Dedinje before his burial in the Royal Family Mausoleum at Oplenac on May 26, 2013.

According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Libertyville has a total area of 9.16 square miles (23.72 km²), of which 8.81 square miles (22.82 km²) (or 96.19%) is land and 0.35 square miles (0.91 km²) (or 3.81%) is water.^[13]

The Des Plaines River forms much of the eastern boundary of the village. Other bodies of water include Butler Lake, Liberty Lake, and Lake Minear.

Libertyville's main street is Milwaukee Avenue (Illinois Route 21). The main automobile route to Chicago is via Interstate 94 (the Tri-State Tollway and the Edens Expressway); Chicago's Loop is approximately 45 minutes away. The main Metra rail station sits at the northern edge of downtown off Milwaukee Avenue, and serves the Milwaukee District North Line running from Union Station in Chicago to Fox Lake. The same line is served by another Metra station at Prairie Crossing, near the boundary of Libertyville and Grayslake. Prairie Crossing station also serves Metra's North Central Service, with service from Union Station to Antioch.

Donna Johnson was elected mayor of Libertyville in April 2021. She is the first African-American, and the second woman, to hold the position.^[22][1]

Libertyville is represented by Jennifer Clark on the Lake County Board.^[23]

More information Mayors of Libertyville, Illinois, Image ...

Mayors of Libertyville, Illinois

Image Mayor Years Notes John Locke May 15, 1882 – May 7, 1883 [24][25] Josiah W. Butler 1885–1886 Son of state representative Horace Butler[24] Franklin P. Dymond 1887–1889 [24] Isbon S. Gleason 1889–1890 [24] Charles H. Averill 1890–1891 [24] Isbon S. Gleason (2nd term) 1891–1892 [24] Charles H. Averill (2nd term) 1892–1898 [24] Abner Weston Waldo April 19, 1898 – April 1901 [26][27][28] C. Frank Wright April 1901 – April 1903 [29] Frank Hampton Just April 1903 – April 1905 Publisher of the Waukegan News-Sun[30] Paul MacGuffin April 1905 – April 1907 [31][32] Henry B. Eger April 1907 – April 1909 April 1909 – April 1911 [31][33][34] Elected Chairman of the Lake County Board of Supervisors in April 1915.[35] Died April 1924[36] Robert P. Schnaebele April 1911 – April 1913 April 1913 – April 1915 [37] Jay B. Morse April 1915 – April 1917 April 1917 – April 1919 April 1919 – April 1921 [37][38][39] Jesse S. Hyatt April 1921 – April 1927 [40][41][42] Earl H. Corlett April 1927 – April 1929 April 1929 – April 1931 [43][44] Samuel P. Evilsizor April 1931 – April 1933 [45] Arthur E. Suter April 1933 – 1944 [45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52] Albert Kroll 1945–1949 [53][54] John J. "Jack" Jaeger 1949–1953 [55] Francis J. Berry 1953–1965 [56] Served as an Illinois state representative (1965–1966)[57][58] Charles Brown 1965–1973 [59] Gilbert Stiles 1973–1981 [59] Paul M. Neal 1981–1989 [59] Jo Ann Eckmann 1989–1997 [59] Duan Laska 1997–2005 [59] Jeff Harger 2005–2009 Terry Weppler 2009–2021 [60] Donna Johnson 2021–Present First African American and 2nd woman mayor[61][62]

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Libertyville is one of six communities comprising the Cook Memorial Public Library District. The Cook Park library, located on Cook and Brainerd streets in Libertyville, is one of the District's two library facilities. The library was originally housed in the Cook Mansion, after resident Ansel B. Cook's wife, Emily, deeded the property to the Village of Libertyville in 1920 for use as a library.^[65] In 1968, a 33,000-square-foot (3,100 m²) addition was added, adjacent to the Cook home. By 1984, the library's collection, as well as the population, had doubled in size. The Evergreen Interim Library opened in 2003 as a temporary facility at the south end of the district, in Vernon Hills. In 2007, the Library Board adopted plans to add an approximately 10,000-square-foot (930 m²) addition to the Cook Park facility, which was completed in January 2011.

The Libertyville Review, published by Pioneer Press, covers Libertyville. Regional newspapers that occasionally contain coverage of Libertyville include the Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald and Lake County News-Sun.

Libertyville has a station on Metra's North Central Service (at Prairie Crossing) and also two stations along Metra's Milwaukee District North Line which provides service between Fox Lake and Union Station, one of which shares a driveway with the station for the North Central Service.

Pace provides bus service on Route 574 connecting Libertyville to Grayslake and other destinations.^[66]

The Libertyville water supply comes from the Central Lake County Joint Action Water Agency (CLCJAWA) located in Lake Bluff. CLCJAWA purifies water from Lake Michigan.

• Pools: Adler Pool, Riverside Pool
• Golf courses: Merit Club
• Lakes: Lake Minear, Butler Lake, Independence Grove, Liberty Lake
• Parks: Adler, Cook, Sunrise Rotary, Charles Brown, Riverside, Butler Lake, Nicholas-Dowden, Independence Grove, Blueberry Hill, Paul Neal, Greentree, Jo Ann Eckmann, Gilbert Stiles.

• Lambs Farm
• St. Sava's Serbian Orthodox Seminary and Monastery