Plainfield (Illinois)
Will County Kendall County
17-60287
Plainfield is a village in Will and Kendall County in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Illinois and part of the Chicago metropolitan area. According to a census in 2010 lived in Plainfield 39,581 inhabitants.
The site comprises land in Plainfield and Wheatland townships. Due to the growth in the suburbs of Chicago in the 1990s and 2000s the city experienced a building boom and a rapid increase in population. Thus, the population grew from 4,500 in 1990 to 13,000 in 2000 to over 37,000 in 2007. Plainfield is the fastest growing community in Will County. In the resort lies the Lake Renwick Nature Reserve, which is used for bird watching and other activities.
History
The area of present-day village was called Walker's Grove until it was built in 1841 as Plainfield. The land was originally settled by a tribe of Potawatomi. The first Europeans in the area were French fur traders. The first European settlers in the area were James Walker, who founded with his father, the Methodist Reverend Jessie Walker in 1826, a mission for the Potawatomi Indians in the area. In 1828 James Walker founded a sawmill that supplied the timber required for the settlement of Walkers Grove.
Plainfield is considered the oldest community in Will County, the earliest settlement of Walkers Grove found on the banks of the DuPage River held in 1828. However, the place Plainfield immediately north of Walkers Grove in 1834 was founded by Chester Ingersoll. The separate council of East Plainfield was founded in June 1836 by James Mathers.
Walkers Grove flourished because of the favorable geographical location at the DuPage River and the roads to Fort Dearborn in Chicago as well as to Ottawa. Reuben Flagg, one of the first settlers in the area, brought walnut wood that was geschnittem in Walker Mill, to Chicago. From this, the first half-timbered houses there were built. The opening of the Illinois & Michigan Canal in 1848, the location advantages were lost, as the village was not located by the canal.
Plainfield currently has three buildings that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the Plainfield House, the Flanders house and a Standard Oil gas station dating from 1928, which was on the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental road in America.
On August 28, 1990, a tornado caused significant property damage in Plainfield. In this case, 29 people died and hundreds were injured.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 32.2 km2, of which 30.1 km2 and 2.1 km2 of water surface are.
As the place name expresses, the topography is generally flat Plainfields. Millennia ago, Plainfield was part of the glacial lake Lake Wauponsee. The lake was eventually drained into the Illinois River Valley. The lake left a very flat landscape. A large part of downtown Plainfield is located at a height from 180 to 190 meters above sea level, some areas in the western and northwestern districts are 210 meters high. This height increase was caused by end moraines during the Wisconsin glaciation of the last Ice Age.
Demographic data
According to the census in 2000 13038 people in 4315 households and 3521 families lived in the village. The population density was 420 people per km2. There were 4609 housing units at an average density of 153.3 units per km2. In the 4315 households lived in 47.3 % of cases, children under the age of 18 years. In the households 73.6 % were living together as married couples, 5.7 % had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.4 % were non-families. 14.8 % of all households were made up of individuals and 4.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.01 and the average family size was 3.37.
Well-known residents
The actress Melissa McCarthy and the basketball player Nate Fox was born in Plainfield.