Libertyville is a village in Libertyville Township, Lake County, Illinois, United States. It is located 5 miles (8 km) west of Lake Michigan, approximately 40 miles north of the Chicago Loop. As such, it is part of the United States Census Bureau's Chicago combined statistical area (CSA). It is bordered by Gages Lake and Gurnee to the north, Vernon Hills to the south, Mundelein to the west, and Grayslake to the northwest. The eastern portions of the village border Mettawa, unincorporated Waukegan and Lake Forest, and part of Knollwood CDP. Its 2020 census population was 20,579.
Contents
History
The land that is now Libertyville was the property of the Illinois River Potawatomi Indians until August 1829, when economic and resource pressures forced the tribe to sell much of their land in northern Illinois to the U.S. government for $12,000 cash, an additional $12,000 in goods, plus an annual delivery of 50 barrels of salt.
Pursuant to the treaty, the Potawatomi left their lands by the mid-1830s, and by 1835 the future Libertyville had its first recorded non-indigenous resident, George Vardin. Said to be a "well-educated" English immigrant with a wife and a young daughter, Vardin lived in a cabin located where the Cook Park branch of the Cook Memorial Public Library District stands today. Though he apparently moved on to the west that same year, the settlement that grew up around his cabin was initially known as Vardin's Grove.
In 1836, during the celebrations that marked the 60th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the community voted to name itself Independence Grove. 1837 brought the town's first practicing physician, Jesse Foster, followed quickly by its first lawyer, Horace Butler, for whom Butler Lake is named. The professionals needed services, so a post office opened, necessitating a third name change, because another Independence Grove existed elsewhere in the state. On April 16, 1837, the new post office was registered under the name Libertyville.
The town's name changed again two years later to Burlington when it became the county seat of Lake County. When the county seat moved to Little Fort (now Waukegan) in 1841, the name reverted to Libertyville, without further changes.
Libertyville's most prominent building, the Cook Mansion, was built in 1879 by Ansel Brainerd Cook, very close to the spot where Vardin's cabin was built in the 1830s. Cook, a teacher and stonemason, became a prominent Chicago builder and politician, providing flagstones for the city's sidewalks and taking part in rebuilding after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The two-story Victorian mansion served as Cook's summer home as well as the center of his horse farm, which provided animals for Chicago's horsecar lines. The building was remodeled in 1921, when it became the town library, gaining a Colonial-style facade with a pillared portico. The building is now a museum with furnishings of the period and other relevant displays. It is operated by the Libertyville-Mundelein Historical Society.
Geography
According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Libertyville has a total area of 9.16 square miles (23.72 km2), of which 8.81 square miles (22.82 km2) (or 96.19%) is land and 0.35 square miles (0.91 km2) (or 3.81%) is water.
The Des Plaines River forms much of the eastern boundary of the village. Other bodies of water include Butler Lake, Liberty Lake, and Lake Minear.
Libertyville's main street is Milwaukee Avenue (Illinois Route 21). The main automobile route to Chicago is via Interstate 94 (the Tri-State Tollway and the Edens Expressway); Chicago's Loop is approximately 45 minutes away. The main Metra rail station sits at the northern edge of downtown off Milwaukee Avenue, and serves the Milwaukee District North Line running from Union Station in Chicago to Fox Lake. The same line is served by another Metra station at Prairie Crossing, near the boundary of Libertyville and Grayslake. Prairie Crossing station also serves Metra's North Central Service, with service from Union Station to Antioch.
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Libertyville had a population of 20,579, with a population density of 2,247.35 inhabitants per square mile (867.71/km2). 100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.
The median age was 44.3 years. 23.8% of residents were under the age of 18 and 18.6% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 94.5 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 92.2 males age 18 and over.
There were 7,611 households and 5,478 families in Libertyville, of which 34.2% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 63.5% were married-couple households, 12.5% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 21.1% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 23.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 8,103 housing units at an average density of 884.90 per square mile (341.66/km2), of which 6.1% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.7% and the rental vacancy rate was 10.7%.
Income and poverty
The median income for a household in the village was $150,580, and the median income for a family was $192,500. Males had a median income of $107,121 versus $51,353 for females. The per capita income for the village was $72,487. About 1.4% of families and 3.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.3% of those under age 18 and 5.8% of those age 65 or over.
Government
Donna Johnson was elected mayor of Libertyville in April 2021. She is the first African-American, and the second woman, to hold the position.
Libertyville is represented by Jennifer Clark on the Lake County Board.
Education
Libertyville District 70
Libertyville has four public elementary schools and one public middle school within village lines, all comprising Libertyville District 70:
Adler Park Elementary School
Butterfield Elementary School
Copeland Manor Elementary School
Rockland Elementary School
Highland Middle School
Hawthorn District 73
Students residing south of Golf Road attend Hawthorn District 73 schools in Vernon Hills.
Oak Grove District 68
Students residing in communities along Buckley Road attend Oak Grove Grade School in neighboring Green Oaks.
Libertyville High School
Libertyville High School, part of Community High School District 128, serves students in Libertyville and other communities in Libertyville Township. Students residing south of Golf Road but north of Greentree Parkway or Red Top Drive are permitted to register for Vernon Hills High School or Libertyville High School, which consolidates District 70's Highland Middle School and Oak Grove School and Rondout Schools of Districts 72 and 68 respectively.
Other
The Roman Catholic St. Joseph Elementary School and St. John's Lutheran School of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod both provide Pre-K-8 education to residents of Libertyville and the surrounding area. St Sava Monastery is also home to the St. Sava Serbian Orthodox School of Theology.
Economy
Top employers
According to the Village's 2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, as of April 30, 2020 the top employers in the city were:
Parks and recreation
Pools: Adler Pool, Riverside Pool
Golf courses: Merit Club
Lakes: Lake Minear, Butler Lake, Independence Grove, Liberty Lake
Parks: Adler, Cook, Sunrise Rotary, Charles Brown, Riverside, Butler Lake, Nicholas-Dowden, Independence Grove, Blueberry Hill, Paul Neal, Greentree, Jo Ann Eckmann, Gilbert Stiles.
Library
Libertyville is one of six communities comprising the Cook Memorial Public Library District. The Cook Park library, located on Cook and Brainerd streets in Libertyville, is one of the District's two library facilities. The library was originally housed in the Cook Mansion, after resident Ansel B. Cook's wife, Emily, deeded the property to the Village of Libertyville in 1920 for use as a library. In 1968, a 33,000-square-foot (3,100 m2) addition was added, adjacent to the Cook home. By 1984, the library's collection, as well as the population, had doubled in size. The Evergreen Interim Library opened in 2003 as a temporary facility at the south end of the district, in Vernon Hills. In 2007, the Library Board adopted plans to add an approximately 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) addition to the Cook Park facility, which was completed in January 2011.
Media
The Libertyville Review, published by Pioneer Press, covers Libertyville. Regional newspapers that occasionally contain coverage of Libertyville include the Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald and Lake County News-Sun.
Infrastructure
Transportation
Libertyville has a station on Metra's North Central Service (at Prairie Crossing) and also two stations along Metra's Milwaukee District North Line which provides service between Fox Lake and Union Station, one of which shares a driveway with the station for the North Central Service.
Pace provides bus service on Route 574 connecting Libertyville to Grayslake and other destinations.
Major roads include:
Tri-State Tollway (Interstate 94)
Milwaukee Avenue
Lake Street
Buckley Road/Peterson Road
Park Avenue
Midlothian Road
Winchester Road
Butterfield Road
St. Mary's Road
Golf Road
Utilities
The Libertyville water supply comes from the Central Lake County Joint Action Water Agency (CLCJAWA) located in Lake Bluff. CLCJAWA purifies water from Lake Michigan.