Yorkville, Illinois

In 1836, the city of Yorkville was settled by early pioneers. Originally, the city's main thoroughfare of Bridge Street was designed for horse-drawn carriages and pedestrians. As time passed, Hydraulic Street, which runs parallel to the Fox River, boasted a trolley that ran from Ottawa to Aurora. This part is now operated by the Illinois Railway.

At the time, Yorkville's central business district was on the south side of the Fox River and the public square was north of the river, a layout unique to the region. The public gathering place was near the river's edge. The Kendall County Courthouse was next to the downtown commercial district. Many of the city's remaining historic single-family homes are within walking distance of Bridge Street, the courthouse and Union Hall. Earl Adams was the first to settle what would become Yorkville when he built his cabin on Courthouse Hill on the south side of town in 1833. One year later, Lyman and Burr Bristol set up residency in neighboring Bristol, north of the river.

When the county of Kendall was formed in 1841, Yorkville was chosen as the county seat. After a 13-year period in which Oswego claimed that honor, voters chose to relocate the county government in 1859 to Yorkville, a more central location. The new courthouse was completed in 1864. Replaced in 1997 with a courthouse on the city's north side, the 1864 building is used by the Kendall County Forest Preserve and other organizations. Yorkville was no exception to the railroad boom. Development began and businesses sprang up in 1870 along the tracks and included Squire Dingee's pickle factory, the Yorkville Ice Cream Company and the Rehbehn Brothers button factory. A few of those buildings still remain.

The present city of Yorkville was originally two towns, Bristol to the north and the Yorkville south of the Fox River, with separate governments for more than 100 years. In 1957, Bristol and Yorkville merged, becoming the United City of Yorkville. Ellsworth Windett became the combined city's first mayor. As a part of the consolidation, the residents of both towns agreed to a uniform school district. It was in that same year high school classes began in the downtown area at the northeast corner of Van Emmon and Bridge Streets. In 1888, a two-story brick school building on West Center Street was constructed. After the construction of Circle Center School in 1968, the two-story building was closed and the space was rented by the Yorkville School District to neighboring Waubonsee Community College. Due to rising enrollment in the early 1970s, the school was reopened and renamed as Parkview Christian Academy.

Yorkville is in northern Kendall County and is bordered to the northeast by Montgomery, to the east by Oswego, and to the west by Plano. Its boundaries are located approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Aurora,^[12] 13 miles (21 km) southwest of Naperville,^[13] and 39 miles (63 km) west of Chicago.^[14]

According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Yorkville has a total area of 20.10 square miles (52.06 km²), of which 20.00 square miles (51.80 km²) (or 99.51%) is land and 0.10 square miles (0.26 km²) (or 0.49%) is water.^[15] The Fox River flows through downtown Yorkville. The city is in Bristol, Kendall, and Fox townships.

Yorkville has a hot-summer humid continental climate, typical for the Midwest. Specifically, Yorkville is in the Köppen Dfa zone.^[16] In this Köppen Dfa zone precipitation is usually amble, especially in the summer months. The spring and summer months can have severe weather, including tornadoes and thunderstorms. The region has four distinct seasons. Winters tend to be cold or even frigid and have snow. Springs tend to be humid, and can have precipitation as well as storms. Summers are usually hot and tend to have the highest precipitation overall, as well as storms. During heat waves, temperatures can get to above 90 and sometimes even 100 degrees in June, July, and August, which are the hottest months.^[17][18] It tends to cool down in the fall.^[19]

The William Wrigley Company has a large manufacturing facility in Yorkville.^[27] Wrigley planned to start making Skittles in Yorkville. It planned to invest about $50 million to expand its Yorkville factory by 145,000 square feet.^[28]

Raging Waves waterpark, the self-proclaimed largest waterpark in Illinois,^[29] is in Yorkville. It opened in 2008 and owns about 45 acres (18 ha) of property.^[30]

The Marge Cline Whitewater Park (on the Fox River) opened in 2010.^[31][32] It is the only whitewater park of its kind in Illinois, similar to East Race in South Bend, Indiana. It offers opportunities for freestyle kayaking, slalom kayaking and river tubing. It is named after Marge Cline, former president of American Whitewater (1982–1988), National Board of Directors of American Canoe Association, President of Midwest Division of ACA, and member of the Chicago Whitewater association.^[33]

The area is served by Yorkville Community Unit School District 115.^[34] Schools include Yorkville Middle School and Yorkville High School. Additionally, a small portion of Yorkville attends Oswego Community Unit School District 308.^[35]

• Autumn Creek Elementary
• Bristol Bay Elementary
• Bristol Grade School
• Circle Center Grade School
• Grande Reserve Elementary
• Yorkville Grade School
• Yorkville Intermediate School
• Yorkville Middle School
• Yorkville Freshman Academy
• Yorkville High School

• Jon Blackman, college and NFL football player
• Dennis Hastert, former Speaker of the House and convicted felon^[36]
• Mike Radja, ice hockey player, born in Yorkville
• Andy Richter, actor and comedian
• The Giving Tree Band, American indie folk rock group^[37]

In August 2011, the movie Man of Steel was filmed at a house built specifically for the set in Yorkville. It appeared in the movie as the Kent family farm. In the fall of 2014, that house was rebuilt for use on the set of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.^[38]