BARRINGTON HILLS, ILLINOIS

'Barrington Hills' is a village, located about 40 miles northwest of Chicago, that straddles approximately 30 square miles in Cook, Kane, Lake and McHenry County, Illinois. The population was 3,915 at the 2000 census^[1]. The Village of Barrington Hills was incorporated in 1957.
The rural-suburban area is part of the greater Barrington community and many wealthy residents live there on large estates within commuting distance of Chicago. There is a minimum five-acre zoning restriction on building new houses and both farming and horse raising are allowed.
The village is home to Hill 'N Dale Farms, belonging to Richard L. Duchossois, owner of the Arlington Park racetrack, and Bill McGinley's Horizons Farms. The community's identification with horses can be seen in names like Broncos and Colts for school teams, stores catering to saddlery and riding outfits, and subdivisions with names such as Saddlewood and Steeplechase and roads such as Bridlewood Trail and Surrey Court.

Contents

History

Geography

Demographics

Notable residents

References

External links

History

Rich farmland and abundant water supplies attracted settlers Jesse Miller and William Van Orsdal in 1834. In the early 1840s other farm families arrived, including German, English, and Irish immigrants, and formed a town near present-day Sutton Road and Illinois Route 68. Initially called Miller's Grove, the community was later named Barrington Center.^[2] Farmers brought their crops to nearby markets on the Fox River in East Dundee. Dairy farmers supported a cheese factory in the late nineteenth century.
Barrington Center Church (used by a Korean congregation, the New Friends Wesleyan Church starting in the 1980s) was built in 1853 and used as an army recruiting station during the American Civil War.^[3] A memorial plaque outside the church lists 91 area residents - one woman and 90 men - who served in the Civil War.^[4]

Industry came to the area for a short period in the 1890s, when American Malleable Iron Company built a plant on the northern fringe of Barrington Hills along U.S. Highway 14. The company hired hundreds of Hungarian workers and constructed a residential community for their workers which they called Chicago Highlands. The foundry closed in 1903 and the workers deserted their homes.
At the turn of the century, the Barrington area attracted many business executives from Chicago. They purchased the rolling farms and subdivided them into large estates where owners turned from agriculture to horse breeding and riding. By the 1920s residents began marking bridle paths. The Fox River Valley Hunt Club, founded in the late 1930s, aided in continuing the system of trails which traversed both private properties and forest preserve land. By the late 1980s over 70 miles of paths could be found.
The Barrington Horse Show began in 1945. It was held on various estates until 1965, when the 15-acre Barrington Countryside Riding Center became its permanent home. The Center is owned and managed by the Barrington Countryside Park District.
Barrington Hills incorporated in 1957, composed of land only in the northwest corner of Cook County, and expanded over the next five years. In 1959, areas in McHenry and Lake Counties joined the village and in 1962 the Village of Middleberry in Kane County was annexed. The Barrington Area Council of Governments (BACOG), which coordinates some local government services for seven villages in the Barrington area, was formed in 1970.
^[5] The only public school located in the village is Countryside Elementary School, with about 500 students, in grades K-5, in the Barrington Community Unit School District 220. Older students attend the nearby Barrington High School.

Geography

Barrington Hills is located at (42.141486, -88.200251).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 73.6 km² (28.4 mi²). 72.2 km² (27.9 mi²) of it is land and 1.3 km² (0.5 mi²) of it (1.83%) is water.
Forest preserves cover 6,000 acres (24 km²) (42 percent) of the village area. The largest is Spring Creek Nature Preserve, which measures 4,000 acres (16 km²) of prairie, swamp, woods, streams and lakes. Another is Crab Tree Nature Preserve and Helms Woods. The latter is attributed to be the location for the White Fringe Prarie Orchid which is a federally threaten plant species.
Into the 1990s farmers still worked about 3,000 acres (12 km²) of land. Residential properties of over one acre covered 30 percent. There is no downtown center, but the village has a small shopping strip along Route 14. With a population of 3,915 in 2000, Barrington Hills has kept its rural flavor as industrial and commercial development has sprung up around its borders.^[5]
The Village is bordered on the west by East Dundee, Carpentersville, and Algonquin; on the north by Fox River Grove, and Lake Barrington; on the east by Barrington, Inverness, and South Barrington, and to the south and southeast by Hoffman Estates.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 3,915 people, 1,381 households, and 1,168 families residing in the village. The population density was 54.2/km² (140.4/mi²). There were 1,456 housing units at an average density of 20.2/km² (52.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the village was 94.30% White, 0.46% African American, 3.91% Asian, 0.74% from other races, and 0.59% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.92% of the population.
There were 1,381 households out of which 33.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 78.9% were married couples living together, 3.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 15.4% were non-families. 12.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.83 and the average family size was 3.10.
In the village the population was spread out with 25.3% under the age of 18, 4.6% from 18 to 24, 20.0% from 25 to 44, 37.7% from 45 to 64, and 12.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45 years. For every 100 females there were 98.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.6 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $145,330, and the median income for a family was $156,002. Males had a median income of over $100,000 versus $56,167 for females. The per capita income for the village was $73,629. About 0.9% of families and 3.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.9% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

Notable residents

★ Hank Paulson, U.S. Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs CEO

References

1. City data. 2000 census information Retrieved on May 22 2007
2. Barrington History accessed March 30, 2007
3. History of the Barrington United Methodist Church accessed March 30, 2007
4. Barrington Area Cemeteries accessed March 30, 2007
5. Encyclopedia of Chicago
Retrieved Sept. 24, 2006
6. Encyclopedia of Chicago
Retrieved Sept. 24, 2006

External links

★ The Village of Barrington Hills official site

★ Barrington Area Council of Governments

★ Barrington Area Library

★