Homewood, Illinois

Geobox|Settlement
name = Homewood
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category = Village
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country = United States
state = Illinois
region_type = County
region = Cook
district_type = Township
district = Rich
municipality =
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elevation_imperial = 659
elevation_imperial_note = cite web|url=Gnis3|411736|title=USGS detail on Newtown|accessdate=2007-10-21]
prominence_imperial =
lat_d = 41
lat_m = 33
lat_s = 26
lat_NS = N
long_d = 87
long_m = 39
long_s = 56
long_EW = W
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area_imperial = 5.3
area_land_imperial = 5.2
area_water_imperial = 0.1
area_urban_imperial =
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population = 19543
population_date = 2000
population_urban =
population_metro =
population_density_imperial = 3755.5
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established = 1893
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government = village
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leader_type = Village President
leader = Richard A. Hofeld
timezone = CST
utc_offset = -6
timezone_DST = CDT
utc_offset_DST = -5
postal_code = 60422, 60430
area_code = 708
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map_caption = Location of Homewood within Illinois
map_background =
map_locator = Illinois
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commons = Homewood, Illinois
statistics =
website = http://www.homesweethomewood.com
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Homewood is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 19,543 at the 2000 census.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 5.3 square miles (13.6 km²), of which, 5.2 square miles (13.5 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.1 km²) of it (0.95%) is water. It lies on the Calumet Shoreline. The shoreline can be seen clearly as the sand ridge along Ridge Road.

Demographics

As of the censusGR|2 of 2000, there were 19,543 people, 7,552 households, and 5,256 families residing in the village. The population density was 3,755.5 people per square mile (1,451.1/km²). There were 7,827 housing units at an average density of 1,504.1/sq mi (581.2/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 78.14% White, 17.51% African American, 0.10% Native American, 1.57% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 1.06% from other races, and 1.56% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.05% of the population.

There were 7,552 households out of which 35.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.7% were married couples living together, 11.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.4% were non-families. 27.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.55 and the average family size was 3.14.

In the village the population was spread out with 27.1% under the age of 18, 5.4% from 18 to 24, 26.8% from 25 to 44, 24.3% from 45 to 64, and 16.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 85.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.3 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $57,213, and the median income for a family was $70,941. Males had a median income of $50,689 versus $35,978 for females. The per capita income for the village was $26,074. About 3.2% of families and 4.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.1% of those under age 18 and 6.5% of those age 65 or over.

Government

Homewood is in Illinois' 2nd congressional district.

Early history (pre-1945)

Homewood sits on the edge of Lake Chicago, which was formed by a retreating glacier long before Lake Michigan. One of the main east-west roads through the town, Ridge Road, got its name because it runs along what used to be the ridge of the lake. The area is rich in limestone deposits, and neighbors Thornton Quarry. In its beginning, the area featured excellent topsoil making it an appealing place for farmers to settle.

James and Sally Hart were the first confirmed settlers in the area in 1834. They were New Englanders, as were the families that immediately followed them; the Butterfields, the Campbells, the Clarks, and the Hoods. In 1839, German and Dutch families began to move into the area as well. The town began to use the name of Hartford.

The first store in Homewood was Hasting's General Store; Dr. William Doepp was its first doctor. Attracted by the country life after his Chicago practice was burned down, he moved to the area in 1851. His practice extended from Crown Point, Indiana to New Lenox, Illinois, and he was required to keep two teams of horses in order to make all his calls.

In 1853, the Illinois Central Railroad (IC) established a station in Hartford, calling it Thornton Station, as most of the passengers came from nearby Thornton. This began a serious period of confusion, as mail for the two separate towns was regularly mixed up. In 1869, settlers petitioned the post office to be renamed as Homewood, after the woods that the residents lived among.

The 1870s brought a new era to Homewood, ushered in by trains and by the crowded conditions of the city. country clubs such as the Homewood Country Club (later changed to Flossmoor Country Club), Dixmoor, Ravisloe, Idlewild and Calumet brought in trains just for golfers. The IC established the Calumet station specifically for their convenience. Wealthy families impressed by the area, and ease of getting to the city, established residences in the area, as permanent or summer homes.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was determined that the small two-room schoolhouse that had been built in the 1880s was inadequate. The Standard school was built in 1904 on Dixie Highway and Hickory for a cost of fourteen thousand dollars. It had four classrooms, two cloakrooms, a tiny office, attic and basement storage. It provided the community with a variety of entertainments in the form of spelling bees, box socials, school entertainment, and a play festival. As many of the children were expected to become farmers, garden and corn clubs were established. Nearby land was turned into gardening plots, but a dry season kept the project from being successful. However, one student, Elizabeth Szanyi made a total of fifty-nine dollars from her produce patch.

Enrollment for the schools continued to grow, and in 1914 the school was forced to convert the cloakrooms into classrooms. In 1918, a nearby residence, the Zimmer house, was rented to house primary grades. In 1923, construction on Central school began. The new school had three more classrooms, an assembly hall, a teacher's room, and a room for health services. By 1928, there were enough students in the district to make a kindergarten class feasible, and extensive additions were made to the school. These renovations included eight new classrooms and a gymnasium-auditorium.

In the 1920s, Homewood became an important railroad depot, and many IC workers and their families moved to the area. Automobiles became a common sight on the streets of downtown. As traffic in the area continued to increase, village officials decided to install the town's first manually operated traffic signal at the corner of Ridge Road and Dixie Highway. This period marks the change from Homewood as a farming community to Homewood as a suburb, as families began to use stores and businesses to supply their needs. The population of town increased from seven hundred and thirteen (713) to fifteen hundred and ninety-three (1593). Thirteen housing developments were recorded in Homewood from 1905 to 1930.

With the crash of the stock market in 1929, life in Homewood changed dramatically. People who worked in factories in Harvey and Chicago Heights lost their jobs, and many almost lost their homes. The Homewood State Bank was closed in the spring of 1932. Optimistic residents who had invested money in the bank until the day before it closed lost everything they had. The flood of trains to and from the city trickled down to three or four trains daily. Those people trying to make an income by were raided, and shut down. Transients were common, and the police officers gave them a place to stay at night, a cup of coffee and a donut before they left in the morning. In 1932 alone, the jail housed twelve hundred and twenty-four people (1224). The schools, which had already been operating in the red, scraped through by cutting programs and by the determined efforts of the PTA, which opened a thrift shop as a fundraiser. The village was reduced to issuing scrip notes to its employees that could not be honored by local business; however, a rental of a large parcel of land by the Illinois Jockey Association ended this problem.

As the factories slowly began to reopen, the city began to tear down old buildings and replace them with new businesses. The most important of these was the Homewood Theater. At its "typical Hollywood opening" it was said, "bright lights will flood the sky, bands will blare, and the theatre will be officially presented to Mayor Fred Borgwordt of the town of Homewood." The opening picture was "Double or Nothing" with Bing Crosby and Martha Raye. The theater seemed to symbolize the return of hope to the city, and remained an important landmark for many years. In 1983, Richard Haas painted a mural on the backs of several buildings in the business district, matching their fronts to their backs. Most famous among these was on the back of the Homewood Theater, depicting it with three young women waiting to view "It's a Wonderful Life". It was demolished in 1992, despite the comparison made by a local student of "throwing away the Mona Lisa just because the frame is broken."

Recent history (1945- )

World War II brought a time of great change to the area, although life in the village during the war was about the same as life anywhere. The number of Homewood men who entered the service is unknown, but the village maintains a complete list of the men who died and the circumstances of their death. After the war, the veterans returned home to a rapidly growing Homewood. The desire of young couples to own a home of their own provided for a phenomenal growth and development of suburbs everywhere. To reflect these changes, the school board expanded the schools once again. In 1948, ground was broken for the new Ridge school, which was located immediately west of the Central school. It was immediately followed by the construction of Willow school, in 1953. In 1958, a junior high school was built and named after the area's first settler James Hart.

At the same time as the grade school expansion, a group of residents in Homewood and the neighboring community of Flossmoor worked to bring about a long time dream of having a local high school, instead of sending students to Thornton, Bloom, Rich or Bremen Township High Schools. Homewood-Flossmoor High School opened its doors in 1959. Almost immediately afterward, in 1962 and 1966, large additions were made to the school. The student body grew so large that students were taught on half-day schedules until a second building to house them could be built in 1972.

The businesses of the area boomed, with the building of Westgate shopping center, Ridge-Mar shopping center, Northgate shopping center, Cherry Creek, Washington Square Plaza, Southgate Shopping Center and the West Homewood Commons. Washington Square Plaza was torn down in the nineties. A recent boom in business along Halsted Street (Illinois Route 1) has provided Homewood-area residents with a large number of chain stores. The downtown area has also been on the rise, with new stores moving in, and the recent announcement of the Chestnut Square development along Harwood Avenue at Chestnut Road, behind the village hall.

In 1981, the first Homewood Fine Art Fair was held in the center of the Village, on Ridge Road. Founder Barbara D. Smith (Homewood's first female Chamber of Commerce President) spent two years learning the recruiting, organizational and judging processes from a variety of experts, and ushered it through its first five years. The official portrait artist of Princess Grace of Monaco -- Mohamed Drisi -- observed the fair's progress for the first two years, after which he volunteered to bolster the status of the institution. The HFAF continues to be held each June in Marie Irwin Park, and is considered a backbone of the south suburban art scene. Not without controversy, Ms. Smith has expressed her concern at deviating from the original vision of "fine art only", and has been critical of what she terms downgrading to arts and crafts from juried fine art. Still, a testament to this new tradition is underscored by the fact that some of the original juried artists she procured continue to exhibit.

In 1993, Homewood celebrated its centennial. Summer saw scores of festivals, parades, and a play celebrating the history of Homewood.

Education

Children in grades K-8 attend schools under the jurisdiction of Homewood public school district 153. School District 153 has four schools: Winston Churchill Elementary, Willow Elementary, Millennium School, and James Hart Junior High School. Children in grades K-2 attend Willow, then move on to Churchill for grades 3 and 4, then move on to Millennium for grades 5 and 6, and finish up grades 7 and 8 at James Hart.(Millennium and James Hart are connected.)

But there is also St.Joseph ages Pre-School through 8th grade in which every grade only has 1 class except for 8th grade which has 2 classes. The dress code for St.Joseph for the boys a top that says St.Joesph's school and the girls have to wear St.Joesph's top that says St.Joesph's and skirts. Every grade except for Pre-School and sometimes 8th grade have to wear this uniform.

The majority of students in the area then go on to attend the local public high school, Homewood-Flossmoor High School. Homewood-Flossmoor High School is its own school district, school district 233. H-F is a twenty-time winner of the U.S. Department of Education's Blue Ribbon Award for excellence. HF also owns WHFH 88.5, the highest powered high school radio station with 1,500 watts.

The most common destination for students after high school is the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. About 10 percent of H-F's graduating class goes there every year.

Rail transportation

Amtrak, provides service to Homewood. Amtrak Train 59, the southbound City of New Orleans, is scheduled to depart Homewood at 8:45pm daily with service to Kankakee, Champaign-Urbana, Mattoon, Effingham, Centralia, Carbondale, Fulton, Newbern-Dyersburg, Memphis, Greenwood, Yazoo City, Jackson, Hazlehurst, Brookhaven, McComb, Hammond, and New Orleans. Amtrak Train 58, the northbound City of New Orleans, is scheduled to depart Homewood at 7:44am daily with service to Union Station in Chicago. Homewood is also served by Amtrak Train 390/391, the Saluki, daily in the morning, and Amtrak Train 392/393, the Illini, daily in the afternoon/evening. Both the Saluki and Illini operate between Chicago and Carbondale.

Amenities

Homewood's success is due to the excellence of the schools in the area, along with the numerous services provided by the town. A joint park district with neighboring Flossmoor maintains a large facility on the old Central and Ridge school grounds, two popular swimming pools, an ice arena, a health and tennis club, a golf course, two gymnasiums, as well as numerous parks and playgrounds. Izaak Walton Preserve, a privately maintained wilderness and wildlife preserve, provides fishing and nature activities in the area, as well as a home for Homewood Baseball, Softball, and T-Ball youth leagues. The excellence of the police and fire departments, and the [http://homewoodlibrary.org Homewood Public Library] also contribute to the continued success of the town.

In 2007, Forbes Magazine rated Homewood as one of the three most "livable" suburbs in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. [ [http://www.forbes.com/2007/10/11/property-homes-suburbs-forbeslife-cx_mw_1011realestate.html Most Livable Metro-Area Suburbs - Forbes.com ] ] .

Sports

The sports in Homewood and Flossmoor is a varitey from Diving,and Swimming to Softball and Baseball which gives kids and adults a varitey of activties. Homewood/Flossmoor Youth Hockey (www.hfyouthhockey.com)is a feeder program for the Homewood Flossmoor High School Vikings hockey teams. There is also 2 golf courses Coyote Run is the most used golf course with NorthWoods (a restaurant) to sit town and eat at. The Homewood Baseball/Softball program is second to none in the early. Former player John Ely is currently in the White Sox farm system.

References

External links

* [http://www.homesweethomewood.com Homewood's Official Website]
* [http://homewoodlibrary.org Homewood Public Library]
* [http://www.hfparks.com Homewood-Flossmoor Park District]
* [http://www.hfisgreat.org H-F is Great]
* [http://www.richtownship.org/map.asp Rich Township]