Hoffman Estates, IL

In 1952, Township residents voted to establish Community Consolidated School District 54 and to become part of the Palatine High School District 211, since there was no high school. In January of 1954, the new Schaumburg School opened with an enrollment of 87 and a faculty of three.

1954 proved to be the landmark in Township history. A local farmer sold his 160-acre farm to Sam and Jack Hoffman, owners of the Father and Son Construction Company, for a subdivision in Cook County. The land, now known as Parcel A, was located east of Roselle Road between Golf and Higgins Roads. The first homeowners began to move into the new subdivision in late 1955. The homes were built on half-acre lots and sold for $14,500. Down payments were as little as $700, and the interest rate was 4-1/2%. On September 19, 1959, residents voted to incorporate as the Village of Hoffman Estates. The charter was issued on September 23, 1959. The population at the time was about 8,000, and the incorporated area was just under three square miles.

Beginning in 1961, the first land north of the tollway was annexed to the Village of Hoffman Estates. Some 2,000 acres were annexed by 1962, including the areas that are now Winston Knolls, Westbury and the Paul Douglas Forest Preserve. The annexations more than doubled the incorporated land area.

Various small office buildings were built by 1980, followed by major complexes such as Northwest Corporate Centre, Barrington Pointe, Greenspoint, and Siemens Gammasonics. Ameritech’s 1.2 million square foot regional headquarters opened in 1991. The Sears, Roebuck and Co. moved into a 1.9 million square foot headquarters in 1992. The Prairie Stone Business Park has some 800 acres slated for office, research and high-tech industrial uses. Hoffman Estates welcomed two new developments in 1995, Quest International and Indramat.

A volunteer fire department was formed in December, 1956, with each homeowner contributing $25 toward the purchase of a small pumper. The homeowners also began a small public library in the original Village Hall located on Illinois Boulevard. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Village continued to grow rapidly, with the construction of both single- family homes and multi-family developments. The population nearly tripled to 22,000 in 1970, grew to 37,000 in 1980 and the 1990 census put the total population at 46,363 with over 16,000 households.

Public facilities such as schools, fire stations and library branches were built during this period to accommodate the area's rapid growth. A Village Hall and Police complex opened on Gannon Drive in 1972 and was the first municipal building in Illinois to be constructed under the guidelines for handicapped accessibility. The new U.S. Post Office, also on Gannon Drive, opened in the fall of 1988. A new Public Works Center opened in early 1990. Finally, the Village Hall was relocated to a new facility in 1992.

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw a shift from a primarily residential community with the development of numerous commercial projects. Hoffman Estates Medical Center and the Village's first auto dealership, Woodfield Acura, opened in late 1986; the latter was soon followed by Saturn, Nissan, Lexus and Land Rover. The Village's future growth is developing along the western boundary with some 2,000 acres slated for office, research, high-tech, industrial, and residential uses.

Today, the Village's estimated population tops out at over 50,000, with a total incorporated land area of about 19 square miles. School District 54, which began with one school in 1952, is now the largest elementary school district in the State of Illinois (outside of the City of Chicago). Other school districts serving Hoffman Estates residents include Districts 46, 15, 211, U-46 and 300. Hoffman Estates High School was named as one of the outstanding high schools in the state in 1987 and the Village of Hoffman Estates has won six Governor's Home Town Awards for its innovative programs.

I knew someone was going to say this haha.

You're not practically near Chicago proper .. I mean, the commute would suck. This is only a guess, but if you went directly South to look for a place to live, you might do alright...

If you work in Hoffman Estates, I would advise living a little closer to the city to the east. Or if you'd prefer, living a little to the north or west, in Dundee or Algonquin (which are really nice smaller suburbs) or Lake Zurich/Buffalo Grove. If you go east towards Chicago, Niles or Skokie are pretty good places. Relatively close to the city.

Robertw: Do you want to have easy access to Chicago? Is this important to you?

Also, it's perhaps worth checking to see how close your office would be to a Metra station, because that could open up some possibilities.

Otherwise, you'd be sitting in traffic a lot. I think there may be some 'quieter' areas further north, and more urban-like (but expensive) suburbs to the east, but you're right around a bunch of expressways.

I'm not a north suburbanite, just someone who has had to drive through there on occasion - maybe someone else has a better idea of what it's like. I've never had a positive image of that NW corridor as a place to live, because it's so commercial.

x-post: yeah, Gear is OTM about 'habitable' suburbs in that area.

yes. exurban hell. car dealerships, office parks, ready-built mansions ready to fall over in a stiff breeze.

I guess everything depends on how often you want to go into the city (nightlife, etc.)

x-post, Amateurist - yeah. Even Park Ridge isn't that bad, but beyond that it gets kinda crappy. But like some people said, there might be some more 'bucolic' suburbs north of there.

I love Skokie btw. Not sure what the housing situation is like around there. I've done Golf Road all the way from Skokie to thereabouts, it's pretty jammed (although more pleasant than the expressway).

Some of the small towns around H.E. may not be overdeveloped yet, or may have had a town center at one time, as opposed to being a corn field full of houses, strip malls and offices.

If you're going to consider Skokie or Evanston, consider Rogers Park or west of it, which is still Chicago & Chicago taxes. My brother used to work out around the area you're looking and lived in Rogers Park .. not a horrible commute, although that was 15 years ago.

The commute sucked! It would routinely take a couple of hours during rush hour. I had a stick and on more than one occasion I never got out of second gear the entire 30 some miles on 90. Bleh! The only marginally redeemable part of the trip is you pass a large Medieval Times castle on the way there.

Haha, I momentarily forgot that my band played at a video game launch party for this company a few months ago.

So, actually, scotch what I said about Metra. Because we took the Metra to the Schaumburg or Arlington Heights station (I forget which) and then still had to be picked up by someone once we got there.

Besides Skokie, there is also Park Ridge and ... Niles, which has its very own Leaning Tower of Pisa replica!

Like jaymc, I've never been there, or most any of the suburbs around there. Never had a reason. I can't imagin their Best Buys and Walmarts and Bennigan'seses being any different than the ones here.

Not to lay down The Fright or anything but this is the cover of photographer Bob Thall's The New American Village, a book of photos exploring, umm, the particular look and feel of the weird American edge city -- as represented by kinda the segment of Chicago suburbs we're talking about:

http://www.americanplaces.org/CAPgallery/images/cover.jpg

I don't even know where Addison is?

This is the hipster fop who works at Reckless, right?

http://www.dragcity.com/press/pimages/photos/dc207sk1.jpg

don't mess with the crimewave

http://jnocook.net/students/kim.ambriz/iosa.jpg

nabisco: worked there

Steve Krak0w -- Reader article about him a year or two ago, photo shoot in Venus magazine around the same time

Kim-the-drummer -- I saw her band Rabbit Rabbit open for somebody at the Empty Bottle a while back. I heard someone say she worked at Reckless. I don't think I've ever actually seen her at the store, and I didn't actually know her name until just now, but I figured that's who N. meant.

One of my favorite Reckless Employees of all time: Chr!s J0hnson, who used to be (and may still half-be) in K-Rad, and helped throw/DJ some of those Empty Bottle Sunday-night dance parties -- possibly the nicest record-store person I've ever encountered.

I tend to date short girls, too, fwiw.