Libertyville is a village in Libertyville Township, Lake County, Illinois, United States. It is located 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.

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.Potawatomi Treaties and Treaty Rights , mpm.edu. Accessed 2008-01-04.

Pursuant to the treaty, the Potawatomi left their lands by the mid-1830s,The Illinois Constitution of 1818 , 19thcircuitcourt.state.il.us. Accessed 2008-01-04. 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.History of the Cook Property . Accessed 2008-01-04.

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 History , libertyville.com. Accessed 2008-01-04.

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.

The community expanded rapidly with a spur of the Milwaukee Road train line (now a Metra commuter line) reaching Libertyville in 1881, resulting in the incorporation of the Village of Libertyville in 1882, with John Locke its first village president.

Libertyville's downtown area was largely destroyed by fire in 1895,Encyclopedia of Chicago: Libertyville, IL, chicagohistory.org. Accessed 2008-01-04. and the village board mandated brick to be used for reconstruction, resulting in a village center whose architecture is substantially unified by both period and building material. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which gave Libertyville a Great American Main Street Award, called the downtown "a place with its own sense of self, where people still stroll the streets on a Saturday night, and where the tailor, the hometown bakery, and the vacuum cleaner repair shop are shoulder to shoulder with gourmet coffee vendors and a microbrewery. If it's Thursday between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m., it's Farmer's Market time (June–October) on Church Street across from Cook Park -- a tradition for more than three decades."section=22 National Main Street Awards, mainstreet.org. Accessed 2008-01-04.

Samuel Insull, founder of Commonwealth Edison, began purchasing land south of Libertyville in 1906. He eventually acquired , a holding that he named Hawthorn-Mellody Farms. He also bought the Chicago & Milwaukee Electric line (later the Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee), which built a spur from Lake Bluff to Libertyville in 1903. When Insull was ruined by the Great Depression, parts of his estate were bought by prominent Chicagoans Adlai Stevenson and John F. Cuneo. The home Cuneo built is now the Cuneo Museum.

From 1970 until 2013, Libertyville was the resting place of the only European monarch buried on American soil, Peter II of Yugoslavia, who died in exile in Denver. On 22 January 2013, Peter II's remains were removed from his tomb at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Monastery and sent to Serbia in a ceremony attended by the Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dačić, Peter's son Alexander with his family, and Serbian Patriarch Irinej. Peter II lay in state in the Royal Chapel in Dedinje before his burial in the Royal Family Mausoleum at Oplenac on May 26, 2013.

Geography According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Libertyville has a total area of , of which (or 96.19%) is land and (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

Racial and ethnic composition +Libertyville village, Illinois – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 2000Pop 2010% 2000% 2010White alone (NH)18,81217,77717,06190.70%87.51%82.90%Black or African American alone (NH)2092322621.01%1.14%1.27%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)1814140.09%0.07%0.07%Asian alone (NH)9481,1541,2384.57%5.68%6.02%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)6440.03%0.02%0.02%Other race alone (NH)1316550.06%0.08%0.27%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)1702827590.82%1.39%3.69%Hispanic or Latino (any race)5668361,1862.73%4.12%5.76%Total20,74220,31520,579100.00%100.00%100.00%

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Libertyville had a population of 20,579, with a population density of . 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 , 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.

Mayors of Libertyville, Illinois Image Mayor Years Notes John LockeMay 15, 1882 – May 7, 1883Josiah W. Butler1885–1886Son of state representative Horace ButlerFranklin P. Dymond1887–1889Isbon S. Gleason1889–1890Charles H. Averill1890–1891Isbon S. Gleason (2nd term)1891–1892Charles H. Averill (2nd term)1892–1898Abner Weston WaldoApril 19, 1898 – April 1901C. Frank WrightApril 1901 – April 1903Frank Hampton JustApril 1903 – April 1905Publisher of the Waukegan News-SunPaul MacGuffinApril 1905 – April 1907Henry B. EgerApril 1907 – April 1909 April 1909 – April 1911 Elected Chairman of the Lake County Board of Supervisors in April 1915. Died April 1924Robert P. SchnaebeleApril 1911 – April 1913 April 1913 – April 1915Jay B. MorseApril 1915 – April 1917 April 1917 – April 1919 April 1919 – April 1921Jesse S. HyattApril 1921 – April 1927Earl H. CorlettApril 1927 – April 1929 April 1929 – April 1931 Samuel P. EvilsizorApril 1931 – April 1933Arthur E. SuterApril 1933 – 1944 Albert Kroll1945–1949John J. "Jack" Jaeger1949–1953Francis J. Berry1953–1965 Served as an Illinois state representative (1965–1966)Charles Brown1965–1973Gilbert Stiles1973–1981Paul M. Neal 1981–1989Jo Ann Eckmann 1989–1997Duan Laska1997–2005Jeff Harger2005–2009Terry Weppler2009–2021 Donna Johnson2021–PresentFirst African American and 2nd woman mayor

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: # Employer # of Employees 1Advocate Condell Medical Center2,1022Hollister Incorporated5273Volkswagen Credit4464Avexis4075Medline Industries3436Libertyville District 703267Fabrication Technologies3078Commonwealth Edison2789Snap-on Credit24210Community High School District 128239

Parks and recreation