La Grange

History

The area around La Grange was first settled in the 1830s, when Chicago residents moved out to the west due to the rapid population increase in the city in the decade since its incorporation. The first settler, Robert Leitch, came to the area in 1830, seven years before the City of Chicago was incorporated. La Grange's location, at approximately from the Chicago Loop, is not considered far from the city by today's standards, but at the time, the area was not yet well-connected to any major hubs. The village was officially incorporated on June 11, 1879. It was founded by Franklin Dwight Cossitt, who was born in Granby, Connecticut, and raised in Tennessee, and moved to Chicago in 1862 where he built a wholesale grocery business. In 1870, Cossitt purchased several hundred acres of farmland in Lyons Township, along the Chicago-Dixon Road, known today as Ogden Avenue (U.S. Highway 34). Ogden Avenue, on the site of a defunct Native American trail, was also referred to as the "Old Plank Road". Planks were often stolen by settlers to be used as building material, which made traveling very bumpy. When the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad came to town, La Grange was a milk stop called Hazel Glen. A few miles to the south, through present-day Willow Springs, the Illinois and Michigan Canal had emerged as a major shipping corridor, connecting Chicago and the Great Lakes with the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. Cossitt set out to build the ideal suburban village – laying out streets, planting trees, donating property for churches and schools, and building homes for sale between 2,000–8,000 US$. He also placed liquor restrictions in the land deeds he sold to prevent the village from becoming a saloon town. When Cossitt began his development, the area was served by a post…

Geography

La Grange is located at (41.807938, −87.873455), about west of Chicago. The village is roughly flat, only deviating from the elevation of 645 feet by at most ten feet. La Grange is surrounded by incorporated places of similar sizes on all sides except to the South West, where the La Grange Highlands are. As of 2020, La Grange has a total area of , all land. Two major railroad tracks run through the village, including the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, and the CSX/Indiana Harbor Belt lines. Some 14,000 years ago, the land under La Grange sat on the western shore of Lake Chicago, a predecessor to Lake Michigan. The prehistoric shoreline today is delineated by Bluff Avenue, a north–south street on the village's east side.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  91,669
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  80,811
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  74,302
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  59,066
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  55,179
• Downy Woodpecker

  Dryobates pubescens (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  54,336
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  52,527
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  52,332

Largest nearby schools

• Lyons Twp High Sch
  High · La Grange · 3,842 students · 15:1 ratio
• J Sterling Morton West High Sch
  High · Berwyn · 3,533 students · 17.2:1 ratio
• J Sterling Morton East High Sch
  High · Cicero · 3,445 students · 20.4:1 ratio
• Oak Park & River Forest High Sch
  High · Oak Park · 3,304 students · 14.1:1 ratio
• Curie Metropolitan High School
  High · Chicago · 3,178 students · 16.5:1 ratio
• Amos Alonzo Stagg High School
  High · Palos Hills · 2,538 students · 14.4:1 ratio
• Unity Jr High School
  Middle · Cicero · 2,054 students · 14.6:1 ratio
• Reavis High School
  High · Burbank · 1,986 students · 17.6:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.9 — 2026-07-08
  21 km ENE of Kenilworth, Illinois
• M 2.6 — 2025-03-15
  6 km W of Dwight, Illinois
• M 3.1 — 2024-07-15
  2 km WNW of Somonauk, Illinois
• M 2.9 — 2015-03-25
  3 km WNW of Lake in the Hills, Illinois
• M 3.2 — 2013-11-04
  1 km SSW of Lyons, Illinois
• M 2.6 — 2013-06-10
  4 km NNE of Virgil, Illinois