Burr Ridge (formerly Harvester) is a village in

Cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (profession), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * C ...

and DuPage counties in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. Per the 2020 census, the population was 11,192.

Geography

Burr Ridge is located at (41.753030, -87.919998). According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Burr Ridge has a total area of , of which (or 98.15%) is land and (or 1.85%) is water. Burr Ridge lies in both Du Page and Cook counties. The village is bordered by Hinsdale to the north, Western Springs to the northeast, Indian Head Park to the east, Willow Springs to the south and southeast, and Willowbrook to the west, along with several unincorporated areas.

History

Burr Ridge's gently rolling hills were carved by

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

s at the end of the last ice age, and most of the village lies on the Valparaiso Moraine. Flagg Creek, a tributary of the

Des Plaines River The Des Plaines River ( ) is a river that flows southward for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 13, 2011 through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois''American H ...

, runs through town. Joseph Vial erected a log cabin near Wolf and Plainfield roads in 1834. Vial also ran a hotel on the stagecoach line, and the Vial family was actively involved in Lyons Township politics and the creation of the Lyonsville congregational church. The first Democratic convention in Cook County was held in Burr Ridge in 1835. After 1848, farmers shipped their goods to Chicago along the

Illinois and Michigan Canal The Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. In Illinois, it ran from the Chicago River in Bridgeport, Chicago to the Illinois River at LaSalle-Peru. The canal crossed the Chicago ...

. A small settlement of German farmers also inhabited Flagg Creek by the 1880s. In 1917, the

International Harvester The International Harvester Company (often abbreviated IH or International) was an American manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, automobiles, commercial trucks, lawn and garden products, household equipment, and more. It wa ...

Company purchased for an experimental farm, where it tested the world's first all-purpose

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

, the

Farmall Farmall was a model name and later a brand name for tractors manufactured by International Harvester (IH), an American truck, tractor, and construction equipment company. The Farmall name was usually presented as McCormick-Deering Farmall and l ...

. Also in 1917, the Cook County Prison Farm (also known as the Bridewell Farm) began operation in what is now Burr Ridge. In 1947, developer Robert Bartlett, whose company also developed Beverly Shores and Countryside, established the Hinsdale Countryside Estates out of a former pig farm. In 1956 these residents decided to incorporate as the village of Harvester, in honor of International Harvester. In the 1940s, Denver Busby bought that became known as the Burr Ridge dairy farm. He later launched the Burr Ridge Estates, with home sites. In 1961,

and the Burr Ridges Estates merged with Harvester, changing the community's name to Burr Ridge. The town name is derived from a group of

bur oak ''Quercus macrocarpa'', the bur oak or burr oak, is a species of oak tree native to eastern North America. It is in the white oak section, ''Quercus'' sect. ''Quercus'', and is also called mossycup oak, mossycup white oak, blue oak, or scrub ...

. By 1963, the population had more than doubled, to 790, and by 1975 it had soared to over 2,200. In 1969, Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley suggested a proposal to build low-income subsidized housing on the prison farm property, but Republican-dominated DuPage County quashed the idea. The prison farm site became the Ambriance subdivision, a gated community of multimillion-dollar homes. The Four Pines Farm gave way to the Carriage Way subdivision, at whose entrance the original farmhouse still stands, and in 1971 additional farmland became the Braemoor neighborhood. An area known as Valley View, once owned by a Chicago industrialist and later by the Chicago chapter of the

Boy Scouts of America Scouting America is the largest scouting organization and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including nearly 200,000 female participants. Founded as the Boy Sco ...

, was developed in the early 1970s as the Burr Ridge Club. The village also has five corporate parks. As with other towns in the industrial corridor southwest of Chicago, close proximity to Interstates 294 and 55 spurred development in Burr Ridge.

Demographics

As of the 2020 census there were 11,192 people, 4,278 households, and 3,194 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 4,562 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 74.42%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 16.46% Asian, 1.96%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.16% Native American, 0.03%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 1.22% from other races, and 5.76% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 5.44% of the population. There were 4,278 households, out of which 26.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 66.29% were married couples living together, 6.76% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.34% were non-families. 23.26% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.58% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.97 and the average family size was 2.50. The village's age distribution consisted of 20.3% under the age of 18, 4.4% from 18 to 24, 13.7% from 25 to 44, 32.2% from 45 to 64, and 29.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 54.5 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.7 males. The median income for a household in the village was $151,900, and the median income for a family was $204,167. Males had a median income of $115,272 versus $63,266 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the village was $97,295. About 1.1% of families and 3.3% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 1.6% of those under age 18 and 2.8% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

Bo Jackson Vincent Edward "Bo" Jackson (born November 30, 1962) is an American former professional baseball and American football, football player. He is the only professional athlete in history to be named an All-star#Sports, All-Star in Major professio ...

, former professional athlete in both baseball and football *

Jennifer Hudson Jennifer Kate Hudson (born September 12, 1981), also known by her nickname J.Hud, is an American singer, actress, producer, and talk show host. Having received List of awards and nominations received by Jennifer Hudson, numerous accolades for ...

, singer and actress * Jim Peterik, member of the band

Survivor Survivor(s) may refer to: * one who survives Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Survivors, characters in the 1997 KKnD series#Armies, ''KKnD'' video-game series * ''The Survivors'', or the ''New Survivors Foundation'', a fictional ...

; co-wrote "

Eye of the Tiger "Eye of the Tiger" is a song by the American rock band Survivor. It was written as the theme song for the 1982 film ''Rocky III'' and released that year as a single from Survivor's third album, '' Eye of the Tiger''. Sylvester Stallone, the di ...

" *

Dennis DeYoung Dennis DeYoung (born February 18, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and keyboardist. He was a founding member of the rock band Styx and served as its primary lead vocalist and keyboardist from 1972 until 1999. DeYoung was the band's most ...

, former lead singer of the band

Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; ; lit. "Shuddering"), also called the River Styx, is a goddess and one of the rivers of the Greek Underworld. Her parents were the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, and she was the wife of the Titan Pallas and the moth ...

* Allison Rosati,

WMAQ-TV WMAQ-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the market's NBC outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Telemundo station WSNS-TV (chann ...

weeknight anchor * Bobby Simmons, professional basketball player * Jim Thome, former major league baseball player and National Baseball Hall of Famer * David Otunga, former

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

wrestler * Dan K. Webb, Co-executive chairman of Winston & Strawn and former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois

Government and infrastructure

Burr Ridge is located in Illinois's 3rd congressional district, which has been represented by Democrat Marie Newman Burr Ridge is served by Pleasantview Fire Protection District (headquartered in LaGrange Highlands) and Tri-State Fire Protection District (headquartered in Darien). Tri-State Fire Protection District Station 3 is located on Madison Street in southern Burr Ridge.

Transportation

Pace provides bus service from the Burr Ridge Park-n-Ride via Routes 850 and 855 which travel on I-55 from Plainfield to Chicago.

Education

Primary schools *Burr Ridge Community Consolidated School District 180 (Anne M. Jeans Elementary School, Burr Ridge Middle School) *Gower School District 62 (Gower West Elementary School, Gower Middle School) *Hinsdale School District 181 (Elm School, Hinsdale Middle School) *Pleasantdale School District 107 (Pleasantdale Elementary School, Pleasantdale Middle School) *Trinity Lutheran School High schools *Hinsdale Township High School District 86 ( Hinsdale Central High School, Hinsdale South High School) * Lyons Township High School District 204 Community colleges *Community College District #502 (

College of DuPage College of DuPage is a Public college, public community colleges in the United States, community college with its main campus in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. The college also owns and operates satellite campuses in Addison, Illinois, Addison, Carol St ...

)

Parks

Burr Ridge includes 12 major parks. One of the largest parks, and home of the Burr Ridge Park District, is Harvester Park. Other larger parks includ
"Pleasantdale Park District"
with adjacent Walker Park at 7425 S. Wolf Road in the Cook County portion of the Village. In DuPage County are Citizens Park, Kraml Park, Palisades Park, Stevens Park, and Whittaker Park in the south, Garywood Park and McCullough Park on Plainfield Road, and Oak Grove Park and Woods Pool Park in the north.

Religious institutions

* St. Peter and St. Paul Orthodox Church *Trinity Lutheran Church, a congregation of the

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

, organized on December 31, 1865. The church supports an elementary school with an enrollment of 137 students (as of 2007), founded in 1883, and is National Lutheran Schools Accredited (NLSA). * St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church, a congregation of the

Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria The Coptic Orthodox Church (), also known as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, is an Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt. The head of the church and the See of Alexandria is the pope of Alexandria on the Holy Apo ...

(Egypt), was built in 1981 and was completed in 1983. The church conducts liturgies every Sunday and supports a Montessori pre-school. *St. Helena's Episcopal Church of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago was founded in the mid-1950s. The church supports multiple food ministries including a 24/7 food donation drop box and a partnership with Vacant 2 Vegetables, which provides fresh produce to area food banks with vegetables grown on the church's 5-acre site. *Zoroastrian Center of Chicago, is one of the few

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, Zoroaster ( ). Among the wo ...

institutions in Illinois. It was founded in 1975 and is currently led by the Arbab Rustom Guive Darbe Mehr."History of The Zoroastrian Association of Metropolitan Chicago"
Retrieved October 30, 2016

References

External links

* {{Geographic location, , Center=Burr Ridge , North= Hinsdale , Northwest= Oak Brook , West= Clarendon Hills , East= Hodgkins , Southeast= Willow Springs , South= Sag Bridge , Southwest= Willowbrook , Northeast= Indian Head Park 1834 establishments in Illinois Populated places established in 1834 Villages in Cook County, Illinois Chicago metropolitan area Villages in DuPage County, Illinois Villages in Illinois