Evanston, Illinois is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois directly north of the City of Chicago, east of Skokie, and south of Wilmette, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan. Evanston is concurrently a city and township, according to state and municipal charters. It is the home of Northwestern University.
What is now Evanston was once part of a larger are...
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Evanston, Illinois is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois directly north of the City of Chicago, east of Skokie, and south of Wilmette, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan. Evanston is concurrently a city and township, according to state and municipal charters. It is the home of Northwestern University.
What is now Evanston was once part of a larger area called "Grosse Pointe Territory" in the 1830s. The first non-native Americans settled in 1836, in an area that by 1850 was called Ridgeville. In 1851, a group of Methodists founded Northwestern University and chose the area as its new home. In 1854, the founders of Northwestern submitted to the county judge their plans for a city to be named Evanston after John Evans, one of their leaders. In 1857, the request was granted.
Evanston was formally incorporated as a town on December 29, 1863, but declined in 1869 to become a city despite the...
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