Carlinville, Illinois
Encyclopedia
Carlinville is a city in Macoupin County
, Illinois
, United States
. As of the 2000 Census, the population was 5,685, and 5,912 at a 2009 estimate. It is the county seat
of Macoupin County
, and so it is an outlying part of the Metro-East
region of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area.
Carlinville is also the home of Blackburn College, a small college affiliated with the Presbyterian church, and Prairie Farms Dairy
.
, once Governor of Illinois, who as a member of the state legislature was instrumental in creating Macoupin County.
Carlinville has long been a site of Illinois history, and has played host to many presidential hopefuls via campaign stops at a time in American history when railway routes produced many visits by politicians. Perhaps the largest and most important hallmark of Carlinville's history is its courthouse. Built in 1870 and designed by famous state capitol building architect Elijah E. Myers
, the construction of Carlinville's courthouse produced its candidacy for the location of the State Capitol. Locally, it is known as "The Million Dollar Courthouse" due to its cost overruns at the time it was built.
In the early 1900s Carlinville became the site of a great many Sears Catalog Homes. An entire neighborhood was constructed of the homes and was funded, in 1918, by Standard Oil of Indiana for its mineworkers in Carlinville, at a cost of approximately 1 million dollars. In gratitude, Sears, Roebuck named one of its house models the "Carlin." Today 152 of the original 156 homes still exist, the largest single repository of Sears Catalog Homes in the United States.
Further, many notable people have come from Carlinville. Among them, the American entomologist Charles Robertson carried out what is still the single most intensive study of flower-visiting insects of a single locality, culminating in a 221-page book published in 1928 under the title Flowers and Insects. From among the specimens he collected in the process of doing this study, he named over 100 new species of bee
s and wasp
s. Scientists in 1970–1972 did a similar survey, and found that most of the bees noted by Robertson were still present. This is presumably due to the existence of bee habitat in hedgerows, on slopes, and in other non-agricultural land in the survey area. The rare bee Andrena lauracea
is only known from these two surveys (one bee specimen each) and from two specimens from Texas
. Biologists from Washington University in St Louis are currently studying changes in pollinator activity by comparing these older data sets to new data.
Also among the cadre of notable Carlinvillians, are several artists, academics, notably nature writer and novelist Mary Hunter Austin
, once called "the most intelligent woman in America" by H.G. Wells, and numerous decorated military veterans.
A pre-1936 routing of historic U.S. Route 66
runs through Carlinville, now known as Illinois Route 4
.
, the city has a total area of 2.4 square miles (6.2 km²), all land.
of 2000, there were 5,685 people, 2,125 households, and 1,393 families residing in the city. The population density
was 2,390 people per square mile (922/km²). There were 2,289 housing units at an average density of 962.3 per square mile (371.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 97.01% White, 1.50% African American, 0.25% Native American, 0.26% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.23% from other races
, and 0.74% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.76% of the population.
There were 2,125 households, of which 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.3% were married couples
living together, 11.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.4% were non-families. 30.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 2.96.
In the city the population was spread out with 23.4% under the age of 18, 12.8% from 18 to 24, 25.1% from 25 to 44, 19.4% from 45 to 64, and 19.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 89.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.1 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $34,259, and the median income for a family was $39,693. Males had a median income of $35,137 versus $21,286 for females. The per capita income
for the city was $16,663. About 9.0% of families and 12.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.3% of those under age 18 and 14.6% of those age 65 or over.
Passes through Carlinville from Interstate 55
to the East, to Kampsville, Illinois, where it crosses the Illinois River
on a free, state-operated ferry
. Alongside a developed road network, the Carlinville Amtrak station
is also served directly by five daily trains, offering easy access to Springfield, St. Louis and Chicago.
Freight rail service is provided by the Union Pacific Railroad, formerly the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, Illinois Central Gulf, Chicago, Missouri and Western, Southern Pacific Chicago - St. Louis Railways. The Illinois Terminal
Railroad passed down the middle of West Street in Carlinville, and was still operating freight service to a nearby grain elevator
into the 1970s. A trestle crossing Goat Hollow south of Carlinville burned, thus severing line, which was abandoned. A small portion of the line is used by Monterey Coal Co.mine to connect with the former Chicago and North Western Transportation CompanyL & M District, serving coal-fired power plants.
Macoupin County, Illinois
Macoupin County is a county located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 47,765, which is a decrease of 2.6% from 49,019 in 2000. The county seat is Carlinville. Macoupin County is an outlying county of the Metro-East region...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. As of the 2000 Census, the population was 5,685, and 5,912 at a 2009 estimate. It is the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
of Macoupin County
Macoupin County, Illinois
Macoupin County is a county located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 47,765, which is a decrease of 2.6% from 49,019 in 2000. The county seat is Carlinville. Macoupin County is an outlying county of the Metro-East region...
, and so it is an outlying part of the Metro-East
Metro-East
Metro East is a region in Illinois that comprises the eastern suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. It encompasses five Southern Illinois counties in the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area. The region's most populated city is Belleville at 45,000 residents...
region of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area.
Carlinville is also the home of Blackburn College, a small college affiliated with the Presbyterian church, and Prairie Farms Dairy
Prairie Farms Dairy
Prairie Farms Dairy is a dairy cooperative operating out of Carlinville, Illinois. As a dairy cooperative, Prairie Farms receives milk from producers and converts it into many different products, including cheese, butter, ice cream, sour cream, cottage cheese, various dips, yogurt, and fluid milk...
.
History
Carlinville is named for Thomas CarlinThomas Carlin
Thomas Carlin was the seventh Governor of Illinois, serving from 1838 to 1842. Born in 1789 in Frankfort, Kentucky, he served in both houses of the Illinois General Assembly, and was instrumental in obtaining passage of a bill in January 1829 creating Macoupin County. The city of Carlinville,...
, once Governor of Illinois, who as a member of the state legislature was instrumental in creating Macoupin County.
Carlinville has long been a site of Illinois history, and has played host to many presidential hopefuls via campaign stops at a time in American history when railway routes produced many visits by politicians. Perhaps the largest and most important hallmark of Carlinville's history is its courthouse. Built in 1870 and designed by famous state capitol building architect Elijah E. Myers
Elijah E. Myers
Elijah E. Myers was a leading architect of government buildings in the latter half of the 19th century, and the only architect to design the capitol buildings of three U.S. states, the Michigan State Capitol, the Texas State Capitol, and the Colorado State Capitol. He also designed buildings in...
, the construction of Carlinville's courthouse produced its candidacy for the location of the State Capitol. Locally, it is known as "The Million Dollar Courthouse" due to its cost overruns at the time it was built.
In the early 1900s Carlinville became the site of a great many Sears Catalog Homes. An entire neighborhood was constructed of the homes and was funded, in 1918, by Standard Oil of Indiana for its mineworkers in Carlinville, at a cost of approximately 1 million dollars. In gratitude, Sears, Roebuck named one of its house models the "Carlin." Today 152 of the original 156 homes still exist, the largest single repository of Sears Catalog Homes in the United States.
Further, many notable people have come from Carlinville. Among them, the American entomologist Charles Robertson carried out what is still the single most intensive study of flower-visiting insects of a single locality, culminating in a 221-page book published in 1928 under the title Flowers and Insects. From among the specimens he collected in the process of doing this study, he named over 100 new species of bee
Bee
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...
s and wasp
Wasp
The term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor an ant. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their...
s. Scientists in 1970–1972 did a similar survey, and found that most of the bees noted by Robertson were still present. This is presumably due to the existence of bee habitat in hedgerows, on slopes, and in other non-agricultural land in the survey area. The rare bee Andrena lauracea
Andrena lauracea
Andrena lauracea is a rare bee species from the United States. It has been collected twice in Carlinville, Illinois, once around 1897 and once in 1970–1972. There are also two putative specimens from Texas....
is only known from these two surveys (one bee specimen each) and from two specimens from Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. Biologists from Washington University in St Louis are currently studying changes in pollinator activity by comparing these older data sets to new data.
Also among the cadre of notable Carlinvillians, are several artists, academics, notably nature writer and novelist Mary Hunter Austin
Mary Hunter Austin
Mary Hunter Austin was an American writer. One of the early nature writers of the American Southwest, her classic The Land of Little Rain describes the fauna, flora and people – as well as evoking the mysticism and spirituality – of the region between the High Sierra and the Mojave Desert of...
, once called "the most intelligent woman in America" by H.G. Wells, and numerous decorated military veterans.
A pre-1936 routing of historic U.S. Route 66
U.S. Route 66
U.S. Route 66 was a highway within the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926 -- with road signs erected the following year...
runs through Carlinville, now known as Illinois Route 4
Illinois Route 4
Illinois Route 4 is a long state road that runs south from the Interstate 55 business loop around Springfield south to Illinois Route 13 just north of Murphysboro. This is a distance of .-Route description:...
.
Geography
According to the United States Census BureauUnited States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the city has a total area of 2.4 square miles (6.2 km²), all land.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 5,685 people, 2,125 households, and 1,393 families residing in the city. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 2,390 people per square mile (922/km²). There were 2,289 housing units at an average density of 962.3 per square mile (371.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 97.01% White, 1.50% African American, 0.25% Native American, 0.26% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.23% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 0.74% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.76% of the population.
There were 2,125 households, of which 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.3% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 11.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.4% were non-families. 30.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 2.96.
In the city the population was spread out with 23.4% under the age of 18, 12.8% from 18 to 24, 25.1% from 25 to 44, 19.4% from 45 to 64, and 19.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 89.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.1 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $34,259, and the median income for a family was $39,693. Males had a median income of $35,137 versus $21,286 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $16,663. About 9.0% of families and 12.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.3% of those under age 18 and 14.6% of those age 65 or over.
Transportation
Illinois Route 4 directly passes through Carlinville. Interstate 55 is also within 12 miles (19.3 km) of the city. Illinois Route 108Illinois Route 108
Illinois Route 108 is an east–west highway in western Illinois. Its western terminus is at Illinois Route 100 in Kampsville, and its eastern terminus is at Interstate 55 in Zanesville Township near Raymond. This is a distance of .- Route description :...
Passes through Carlinville from Interstate 55
Interstate 55
Interstate 55 is an Interstate Highway in the central United States. Its odd number indicates that it is a north–south Interstate Highway. I-55 goes from LaPlace, Louisiana at Interstate 10 to Chicago at U.S. Route 41 , at McCormick Place. A common nickname for the highway is "double...
to the East, to Kampsville, Illinois, where it crosses the Illinois River
Illinois River
The Illinois River is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately long, in the State of Illinois. The river drains a large section of central Illinois, with a drainage basin of . This river was important among Native Americans and early French traders as the principal water route...
on a free, state-operated ferry
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
. Alongside a developed road network, the Carlinville Amtrak station
Carlinville (Amtrak station)
The Carlinville Amtrak station is a train station in Carlinville, Illinois, United States served by Amtrak, the national railroad passenger system....
is also served directly by five daily trains, offering easy access to Springfield, St. Louis and Chicago.
Freight rail service is provided by the Union Pacific Railroad, formerly the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, Illinois Central Gulf, Chicago, Missouri and Western, Southern Pacific Chicago - St. Louis Railways. The Illinois Terminal
Illinois Terminal
Opened in January 1999, the Illinois Terminal is an intermodal transportation center, providing city bus, intercity bus, and rail connections to, from, and within Champaign, Illinois...
Railroad passed down the middle of West Street in Carlinville, and was still operating freight service to a nearby grain elevator
Grain elevator
A grain elevator is a tower containing a bucket elevator, which scoops up, elevates, and then uses gravity to deposit grain in a silo or other storage facility...
into the 1970s. A trestle crossing Goat Hollow south of Carlinville burned, thus severing line, which was abandoned. A small portion of the line is used by Monterey Coal Co.mine to connect with the former Chicago and North Western Transportation CompanyL & M District, serving coal-fired power plants.