Skokie

History

In 1888, the community was incorporated as Niles Centre. About 1910, the spelling was Americanized to "Niles Center". However, the name caused postal confusion with the neighboring village of Niles. A village-renaming campaign began in the 1930s. In a referendum on November 15, 1940, residents chose the Native American name "Skokie" over the name "Devonshire". During the real estate boom of the 1920s, large parcels were subdivided; many two- and three-flat apartment buildings were built, with the "Chicago"-style bungalow a dominant architectural specimen. Large-scale development ended as a result of the Great Crash of 1929 and consequent Great Depression. It was not until the 1940s and the 1950s, when parents of the baby boom generation moved their families out of Chicago, that Skokie's housing development began again. Consequently, the village developed commercially, an example being the Old Orchard Shopping Center, currently named Westfield Old Orchard. During the night of November 27–28, 1934, after a gunfight in nearby Barrington that left two FBI agents dead, two accomplices of notorious 25-year-old bank-robber Baby Face Nelson (Lester Gillis) dumped his bullet-riddled body in a ditch along Niles Center Road adjoining the St. Peter Catholic Cemetery, a block north of Oakton Street in the town. The first African-American family to move to Skokie arrived in 1961, and open-housing activists helped to integrate the suburb subsequently. Historic maps named the Skokie marsh as Chewab Skokie, a probable derivation from Kitchi-wap choku, a Potawatomi term meaning 'great marsh'. Other Indigenous names include skoutay or scoti, an Algonquian words for 'fire'. "Skokie Marsh" was used by local botanists, notably Henry Chandler Cowles, as early as 1901. The village name…

Geography

According to the 2010 census, Skokie has a total area of , all land. The village is bordered by Evanston to the east, Chicago to the southeast and southwest, Lincolnwood to the south, Niles to the southwest, Morton Grove to the west, Glenview to the northwest, and Wilmette to the north. The village's street circulation is a street-grid pattern, with a major east–west thoroughfare every half mile: Old Orchard Road, Golf Road, Church Street, Dempster Street, Main Street, Oakton Street, Howard Street, and Touhy Avenue. The major north–south thoroughfares are Skokie Boulevard, Crawford Avenue, and McCormick Boulevard; the major diagonal streets are Lincoln Avenue, Niles Center Road, East Prairie Road and Gross Point Road. Skokie's north–south streets continue the street names and (house number) grid values of Chicago's north—south streets—with the notable exceptions of Cicero Avenue, which is renamed Skokie Boulevard within Skokie, and Chicago's Pulaski Road retains its original Chicago City name, Crawford Avenue. The east–west streets continue Evanston's street names, but with Chicago grid values, such that Evanston's Dempster Street is 8800 north in Skokie addresses. Skokie is in the Hot-summer humid continental climate, or Köppen Dfa zone. The zone includes four distinct seasons. Winter is cold with snow. Spring warms up with precipitation and storms, some of which can be severe and include tornadoes. Summer has high precipitation and storms. Fall cools down.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  119,838
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  119,757
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  103,441
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  82,664
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  82,606
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  68,417
• Ring-billed Gull

  Larus delawarensis Ord, 1815 · Aves
  67,276
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  65,303

Largest nearby schools

• Lane Technical High School
  High · Chicago · 4,496 students · 17.4:1 ratio
• Taft High School
  High · Chicago · 4,464 students · 16.6:1 ratio
• Evanston Twp High School
  High · Evanston · 3,691 students · 13.7:1 ratio
• Glenbrook South High School
  High · Glenview · 3,030 students · 13.6:1 ratio
• New Trier Township H S Winnetka
  High · Winnetka · 2,856 students · 11.3:1 ratio
• Niles West High School
  High · Skokie · 2,609 students · 14.2:1 ratio
• Maine South High School
  High · Park Ridge · 2,495 students · 17.3:1 ratio
• Lincoln Park High School
  High · Chicago · 2,107 students · 15.5:1 ratio

Most recent

• 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
• M 3.8 — 2010-02-10
  2 km NW of Lily Lake, Illinois