Lombard is a village in
DuPage County, Illinois
DuPage County ( ) is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Illinois, and one of the collar counties of the Chicago metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 932,877, making it List of ...
, United States, and a suburb of
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
. The population was 44,476 at the
2020 census.
History
Lombard was originally named "Babcock's Grove", after the Babcock brothers, early settlers along the
DuPage River
The DuPage River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 13, 2011 tributary of the Des Plaines River in the U.S. state of Illinois.
Course
The river begins as two in ...
. It was renamed for a real estate developer who mapped out plans for the settlement in 1868.
[ ]
Sheldon and Harriet Peck moved from
Onondaga, New York
Onondaga is a town in Onondaga County, New York, United States, encompassing 65 square miles. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 22,937. The town is named after the native Onondaga tribe, part of the Iroquois Confederacy. Onondaga was in ...
, to this area in 1837 to farm of land. In addition, Peck was an artist and primitive portrait painter who traveled to clients across northeastern Illinois. The Peck house also served as the area's first school and has been restored by the Lombard Historical Society.
In 2011, the Peck House was inducted into the National Park Service's Network to Freedom—a list of verified
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...
locations.
The 1848 arrival of the
Galena and Chicago Union Railroad
The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad (G&CU) was the first railroad constructed out of Chicago, intended to provide a shipping route between Chicago and the lead mines near Galena, Illinois. The railroad company was chartered on January 16, 183 ...
provided local farmers and merchants rail access to Chicago, and commercial buildings soon sprang up around the train station. Lombard was officially incorporated in 1869, named after Chicago banker and real estate developer Josia Lewis Lombard.
Women's rights
On April 6, 1891,
Ellen A. Martin led a group of women to the voting place at the general store. She demanded that the three male election judges allow the women to vote. The judges were so surprised that one of them had a "spasm," one leaned against the wall for support, and the other fell backwards into a barrel of flour. They acquiesced to Ellen, but fundamentally did not want to let the women vote, so a county judge was asked to decide. He agreed that the women were right. Ellen Martin then became the first woman in Illinois to vote, and one of the first in the entire U.S. In 1916 Illinois women could vote in national elections, but the
19th Amendment (the Women's Suffrage Amendment) was not passed until 1920.
In 2008, Lombard declared April 6 to be "Ellen Martin Day" in commemoration of Ms. Martin's historic victory for women's suffrage.
Little Orphan Annie House
William LeRoy built a home in the
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...
style on Lombard's Main Street in 1881. LeRoy specialized in making artificial limbs for civil war veterans and lived in this house until 1900. The house would eventually become the home of
Harold Gray's parents and the studio of Harold Gray, the originator of
Little Orphan Annie
''Little Orphan Annie'' was a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray and print syndication#Comic strip syndication, syndicated by the Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James ...
cartoon strip. Harold Gray used the home's study to work on the Annie cartoons, and some features of the house are drawn into some of his cartoons, such as the grand staircase and the outer deck. Gray lived at 215 S. Stewart Ave in Lombard at this time. Later, he remarried and moved to the east coast. Harold Gray was a charter member of Lombard Masonic Lodge #1098, A.F. & A.M. in 1923.
The Lilac Village
In 1927, the estate of Colonel William Plum, a local resident, was bequeathed to the village. The Plum property included his home, which became the site of the original
Helen M. Plum Memorial Library (decommissioned in 2023), and a large garden containing 200 varieties of lilac bushes. This garden became a public park,
Lilacia Park.
Geography
According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Lombard has a total area of , of which (or 98.21%) is land and (or 1.79%) is water.
Demographics
As of the
2020 census there were 44,476 people, 17,030 households, and 10,914 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 19,150 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 70.83%
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 ...
, 4.62%
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 ...
, 0.35%
Native American, 13.15%
Asian, 0.01%
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 ...
, 3.82% from
other races, and 7.21% 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 10.17% of the population.
There were 17,030 households, out of which 28.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.20% were married couples living together, 9.82% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.91% were non-families. 29.47% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.30% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.23 and the average family size was 2.54.
The village's age distribution consisted of 20.4% under the age of 18, 9.0% from 18 to 24, 29% from 25 to 44, 25.8% from 45 to 64, and 15.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37.7 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.7 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $86,167, and the median income for a family was $100,420. Males had a median income of $58,398 versus $40,411 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 $41,154. About 3.5% of families and 5.6% 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 4.5% of those under age 18 and 5.9% of those age 65 or over.
Economy

According to Lombard's 2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:
Arts and culture
Since 1930, Lombard has hosted an annual Lilac Festival and parade in May. "Lilac Time in Lombard," is a 16-day festival ending in mid-May. It starts with the Lilac Queen coronation and her court. Many lilac themed events take place, including a formal ball, concerts, wine and beer tasting in the park, a Mothers' Day Brunch, an arts and crafts fair, and tours of the park. The grand finale is Lombard's Lilac Festival Parade. The first Lilac Princess in 1930 was Adeline Fleege.
Government
The Village of Lombard is a non-home rule community. It has a
council–manager form of government. Each elective office is held for a four-year term. The village president is Keith Giagnorio.
Education
Lombard's high schools belong to
Glenbard Township High School District 87. They are shared with the neighboring town of Glen Ellyn, thus the creation of the
portmanteau
In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together. word "Glenbard". Lombard's elementary and middle schools (K-8) belong to Lombard School District 44 or DuPage School District 45.
Glenbard East High School is located in Lombard.
Private Schools include
Montini Catholic High School, and College Preparatory School of America.
Infrastructure

Lombard is served by
Metra
Metra is the primary commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area serving the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs via the Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, and other railroads. The system operates 243 train station, stati ...
's
Union Pacific West Line
The Union Pacific West Line (UP-W) is a Metra commuter rail line operated by Union Pacific Railroad in Chicago, Illinois and its western suburbs. Metra does not refer to its lines by particular colors, but the timetable accents for the Union Paci ...
, which runs from the Ogilvie Transportation Center out to
Elburn, Illinois
Elburn is a village in Kane County, Illinois, United States. The population was 5,602 as of the 2010 census, up from 2,756 at the 2000 census. It is located at the intersection of Illinois Route 38 and Route 47. Elburn is a town situated we ...
over the old
Chicago and Northwestern Railway trackage. Lombard's also served by
I-88 /
Illinois 110 and
I-355 as well as Illinois Routes
38,
53,
56, and
64.
Formerly, it was also served by trains of the
Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad (with commuter stops at Stewart Ave, Main St, Brewster Ave and Westmore/Meyers Road) and the
Chicago Great Western Railway
The Chicago Great Western Railway was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, and Kansas City. It was founded by Alpheus Beede Stickney in 1885 as a regional line between St. Paul and the Iowa state line called the Minnesot ...
. These former railroads have been preserved as multiple use recreational trails (
Illinois Prairie Path
The Illinois Prairie Path (often called the Prairie Path and abbreviated IPP) is a network of of bicycle trails, mostly in DuPage County, Illinois. Portions of the trail extend west to Kane County and east to Cook County. Most of the trail i ...
and
Great Western Trail).
Pace provides bus service on multiple routes connecting Lombard to Naperville, Cicero, and other destinations. The
Yorktown Center serves as a hub for bus routes in the area.
Notable people
*
Winifred Bonfils
Winifred Sweet Black Bonfils (October 14, 1863, Chilton, Wisconsin – May 25, 1936, San Francisco, California) was an American reporter and columnist, under the pen name Annie Laurie, a reference to her mother's favorite lullaby. She also wrote ...
, newspaper journalist and columnist
*
Dallas Frueh, racing driver
*
Russ Gamester, racing driver
*
Harold Gray, cartoonist and creator of ''
Little Orphan Annie
''Little Orphan Annie'' was a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray and print syndication#Comic strip syndication, syndicated by the Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James ...
''
*
Tom Higgenson, founder of
Plain White T's
The Plain White T's are an American pop rock band from Lombard, Illinois, formed in 1997 by high school friends Tom Higgenson, Dave Tirio, and Ken Fletcher, and joined a short time later by Steve Mast. The group had a mostly underground followin ...
, grew up in Lombard
*
Ted Kaczynski
Theodore John Kaczynski ( ; May 22, 1942 – June 10, 2023), also known as the Unabomber ( ), was an American mathematician and domestic terrorist. He was a mathematics prodigy, but abandoned his academic career in 1969 to pursue a reclusi ...
, American terrorist, also known as the Unabomber
*
James Marcello, reputed Mafia leader
*
Ellen Annette Martin, first woman to vote in Illinois in 1891
*
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (born November 17, 1958) is an American actress and singer. She made her Broadway debut in the 1980 revival of ''West Side Story'', and went on to appear in the 1983 film '' Scarface'' as Al Pacino's character's si ...
, actor
*
Sheldon Peck, folk artist and abolitionist
*
Mary Doria Russell, author of five novels including ''The Sparrow'' and ''Children of God''
*
Bob Schacht, racing driver
*
Daniel M. Tani, NASA astronaut
*
Charles Tilly
Charles Tilly (May 27, 1929 – April 29, 2008) was an American sociologist, political scientist, and historian who wrote on the relationship between politics and society. He was a professor of history, sociology, and social science at the Uni ...
, scholar
*
Doug Walker, film critic and comedian
*
Timothy Zahn
Timothy Zahn (born 1951) is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy. He is known best for his prolific collection of ''Star Wars'' List of Star Wars books, books, chiefly the Thrawn trilogy, ''Thrawn'' trilogy, and has published several ...
, science-fiction author
See also
*
Sacred Heart Church (Lombard, Illinois)
References
*
*
*
External links
Official Website
{{authority control
Chicago metropolitan area
Villages in DuPage County, Illinois
Populated places established in 1869
1869 establishments in Illinois
Villages in Illinois