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Naperville is a city in DuPage County, Illinois and Will County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 128,358; The United States Census Bureau estimated the population in 2004 at 140,106. It is the fourth largest city in the state, behind Chicago, neighboring Aurora, and Rockford. Approximately 95,000 Napervillians live in DuPage County, while about 40,000 reside in Will County. History Naperville was founded in July, 1831 by Joseph Naper. The original establishment was called Naper's Settlement. By 1832, over one hundred settlers had arrived at Naper's Settlement. These settlers were temporarily displaced to Fort Dearborn for protection from an anticipated attack by the Sauk tribe. Fort Payne was built at Naper's Settlement, the settlers returned, and the attack never materialized. The Pre-Emption House was constructed in 1834, as the Settlement became a stage-coach stop on the road from Chicago to Galena. Reconstructions of Fort Payne and the Pre-Emption House stand as part of Naper Settlement, which was first established by the Naperville Heritage Society in the 1970s to preserve some of the community's oldest buildings. After DuPage County was split from Cook County in 1839, Naper's Settlement became the DuPage county seat, a distinction it held until 1868. Naper's Settlement was incorporated as the Village of Naperville in 1857, at which time it had a population of 2,000. Reincorporation as a city occurred in 1890. A predominantly rural community for most of its existence, Naperville experienced a population explosion, starting in the 1960s, but largely during the 1980s and 1990s following the construction of the East-West Tollway (now known as the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway) and North-South tollways. In the past two decades, it has nearly quadrupled in size as Chicagoland's urban sprawl brought corporations, jobs, and wealth to the area. On April 26, 1946, Naperville was the site of one of the worst train accidents in Chicagoland history. Two Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad trains, the Advance Flyer and the Exposition Flyer, collided 'head to tail' on a single track. The accident killed 45 and injured more than 100. This event is commemorated in a metal inlay map of Naperville on the southeast corner of Nichols Library's sidewalk area. The March 2006 issue of Chicago magazine, cites a mid-1970s decision to make and keep all parking in downtown Naperville free for keeping downtown Naperville "alive" in the face of competition with Fox Valley Mall in Aurora and the subsequent sprawl of strip shopping malls. Existing parking meters were taken down, parking in garages built in the 1980s and 1990s is free, and parking is still available on major thoroughfares during non-peak hours. Naperville has announced a series of celebrations and events marking the 175th anniversary of its founding in 1831. The events began on 1 January 2006, and are planned to continue throughout 2006. The official events calendar is posted online at http://www.naper175.org/ Economy Naperville is located in the Illinois Technology and Research Corridor. Employers contributing to the population explosion of the 1980s and 1990s include Bell Labs and Western Electric (both now owned by Lucent Technologies), Amoco Labs (now owned by BP), Nalco Chemical, NiCor, and more recently by Edward Hospital. Tellabs and Laidlaw have corporate headquarters in Naperville, and ConAgra's Packaged Meats and Deli division's offices are also in Naperville. OfficeMax announced that it would be moving its corporate headquarters to Naperville in 2006. Also, Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory are nearby. Naperville was one of the ten fastest growing communities in the United States during the 1990s. Honors In July of 2006, CNN/Money and ''Money'' magazine ranked Naperville second on its list of the 100 best places to live in the United States (behind Fort Collins, Colorado and well ahead of any neighboring Illinois communities). This was up one spot from the previous year, where the city was honored with third place. * The U.S. Census Bureau called Naperville "the country's best place to be a kid" in 2004. The city has been named "Most Kid-Friendly City in America" by Zero Population Growth, and continues to be rated very highly at their website ( In 2000, Naperville had the highest average income amongst cities with populations over 70,000. The AARP listed Naperville as one of its "top ten small towns for senior citizens" in 2000. Walking magazine listed Naperville on its top ten list of U.S. "walking towns," in 1999. Housing Naperville is among the most affluent of American cities, and its housing stock reflects that affluence. Modest homes and less expensive apartments can be found in the city, but there are a large number of homes valued at over $1 million. The downtown area of Naperville is highly sought after. There are many Victorian and early 20th Century homes in the downtown area, and a large portion of the area east of Washington Street comprises the historic district. The downtown, with its ready access to fine dining, shopping, museums, and the Metra train system, is highly in demand. In recent years many homes in the downtown area have been torn down to make way for large modern homes. This has generated a fair amount of controversy, including complaints that some of these "teardowns" are inappropriate in size or design for the community. The city has enacted some limits on the size and placement of new homes in response to these criticism. Residents of the city often identify strongly with their neighborhoods, which were generally named by that community's developer. Higher Education Naperville Public Schools Two K-12 public school districts serve the city of Naperville (along with a number of private, parochial schools, including private schools in neighboring Aurora and Lisle). Within the state of Illinois, school districts are numbered by their county. District 203 is the Naperville Community Unit School District, serving central Naperville. The current District 203 school buildings were constructed between 1928 (Ellsworth) and 1929 (Naper) on through 1990 (Kingsley). District 204 is the Indian Prairie School District, serving western and southwestern Naperville and eastern Aurora. For details on the District 204 schools in Aurora, see the Public school systems in Aurora, Illinois article. Recreation In 1999, Naperville was designated a White House Millennium Community, due to the construction of the Moser Tower and Millennium Carillon. The tower is located just north of Aurora Road, and at the base of Rotary Hill within the Riverwalk Park complex. The Millennium Carillon is specially designated as a Grand Carillon, with 72 bells, and is one of only four worldwide that span six octaves. The Millennium Carillon was dedicated in an Independence Day event on June 29, 2000, with a reception attended by over 15,000, and a performance by the Naperville Municipal Band and the Naperville Men's Glee Club and Festival Chorus. The Carillon is both manually and also computer-playable, with most performances being done by hand, but with half the bells played by a computer-controlled system at set times during the day. At present, the Carillon is operational but Moser Tower itself is incomplete and is not open to the public. Disputes over funding the completion of the tower were debated before the Naperville City Council during the fall of 2005. The design of the tower won an award for "Best Custom Solution" from the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) *. By 2007, a DuPage River Trail will be opened for pedestrians and bicyclists, stretching from the DuPage River Sports Complex (at Naperville's boundary with Bolingbrook, Illinois) through Knoch Knolls Park (south of the DuPage/Will county line) to the Riverwalk in downtown Naperville. As of early July 2005, the trail can only be hiked from 87th Street to Hobson Road. This is due to continuing legal negotiations between the city and homeowners along the trail. From Hobson Road north to the Riverwalk, the path is fully open to both pedestrians and bicyclists. Naperville Park District The Naperville Park District manages and provides leisure and recreational activities for Naperville and nearby residents. The District was established by referendum in 1966. As of 2005 the Park District manages over 2,400 acres of open space, including over 130 parks and four sports complexes. The Park District also manages two golf courses, and is responsible for the Naperville Riverwalk. Some of the facilities managed by the Park District include: Naperville Public Libraries There are three public library locations within city limits. The Public Libraries have been ranked Events The City of Naperville hosts many annual events, including: Roads As a typical American suburb, the main mode of transportation is via automobile. The Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway runs near the north edge of Naperville, and Interstate 55 runs south of the city, through Bolingbrook and Romeoville. Limited bus service to and from the main Naperville train station, as well as destinations such as Aurora's Fox Valley Mall, are also available through the Pace system. A brief explanation of street names: From 75th Street south (including 83rd Street, 87th Street, etc.) Naperville east-west streets and their names roughly follow the same grid layout as the City of Chicago. In other words, if 75th street continued east past its terminus at Illinois Route 83, in Willowbrook, it would eventually be the same 75th Street as found in Chicago city limits. However, the older part of Naperville has a second numerical grid, starting downtown, with 4th and 5th Avenues just north of the BNSF tracks, and continuing through 15th Avenue. The difference is that the numbers in the older system go up from downtown, traveling south to north, and the other grid's numbers go up as you travel north to south. See the Chicago Streets & Highways article for more information. There is also a geographical based naming system, with West Street and North Street defining the older boundaries of the city. Along with these are streets named after the city they lead to, i.e, Naper/Plainfield Road heads towards Plainfield, while Aurora Avenue leads to Aurora and Chicago Avenue to Chicago (it becomes Maple Ave. in neighboring Lisle before becoming 55th Street). Oswego Road, while having once led to Oswego via U.S. Route 34, no longer connects to that highway, and thus no longer leads directly to Oswego, Illinois. Airport There is also one private airport, the Naper Aero Club field, designation LL-10, on the western edge of town. The field is notable for being the home of the Lima Lima Flight Team. Train service The first rail link to Chicago dates to 1864. Naperville currently has three tracks belonging to the BNSF Railway that run through the north end of town, with passenger rail service provided by Metra and Amtrak. Amtrak's three routes through Naperville are the Illinois Zephyr, the California Zephyr and the Southwest Chief. Fire and Police There are nine Fire Department stations within city limits, with a tenth planned for south Rt. 59 and 95th street. The central Naperville Police Department station, on Aurora Avenue at River Road, is located next to Fire Station Sister City Nitra, Slovakia has been Naperville's official sister city since the Naperville City Council approved the partnership on November 17, 1993. Nitra was chosen, in part, due to a desire to create a special bond with a city in one of the newly-formed democracies brought about by the fall of the Iron Curtain. Nitra was also chosen due to several similarities between the two cities, such as: Since the inception of this partnership, the Naperville Sister Cities Commission has worked to strengthen the bond between Naperville and Nitra through its support of various events and delegations. The primary goal of such sister city programs is to increase awareness of other cultures and promote international friendship, and the Naperville-Nitra partnership has so far been a successful one. In 2002, the Sister Cities Commission supported a youth baseball exchange, sending the Naperville Patriots baseball team, comprised of 15 high school age ballplayers and representing each of the four high schools (Naperville Central, Naperville North, Neuqua Valley, Waubonsie Valley) in the Naperville area, to Nitra. The team travelled throughout Slovakia, and played with and held clinics for the newly-formed Nitra "Little Giants" baseball team. Head coach Dave Perillo and captains Jason Fitterer and Rob Losik were responsible for organizing the clinic for the Nitra players, which proved to be a success. The Naperville Patriots also enjoyed the distinction of being the first baseball team from the United States ever to travel to the nation of Slovakia. In addition to this exchange, the city of Naperville has supported several other events to strengthen the bond with Nitra, including: The community at large has enthusiastically supported the Naperville-Nitra partnership, as well. In 1999, Naperville's Our Savior's Lutheran Church raised $275,000 to rebuild a church in Nitra, which was then dedicated the following year. NALCO and school districts 203 and 204 have also shipped 6,000 pounds of books to Nitra since 1993. Geography Naperville is located at (41.749826, -88.155719). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 92.0 km² (35.5 mi²). 91.6 km² (35.4 mi²) of it is land and 0.4 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (0.39%) is water. Downtown Naperville is located within DuPage County, Illinois, but the city has stretched south, into Will County, Illinois, since at least the early 1980s. Demographics As of the census of 2000, there were 128,358 people, 43,751 households, and 33,644 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,400.8/km² (3,628.3/mi²). There were 45,651 housing units at an average density of 498.2/km² (1,290.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 85.19% White, 3.03% African American, 0.12% Native American, 9.64% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.75% from other races, and 1.25% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.24% of the population. There were 43,751 households out of which 47.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 69.2% were married couples living together, 5.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.1% were non-families. 18.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.89 and the average family size was 3.37. In the city the population was spread out with 31.8% under the age of 18, 6.4% from 18 to 24, 33.7% from 25 to 44, 21.9% from 45 to 64, and 6.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 95.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.4 males. The median income for a household in the city was $88,771, and the median income for a family was $101,590. Males had a median income of $75,905 versus $40,295 for females. The per capita income for the city was $35,551. About 1.6% of families and 2.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.2% of those under age 18 and 5.0% of those age 65 or over. Official city-related sites Public schools Recreational amenities Local media Local radio Maps and aerial photography | |||||||
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