Rolling Meadows, Illinois
Encyclopedia
Rolling Meadows is a city in Cook County
Cook County, Illinois
Cook County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, with its county seat in Chicago. It is the second most populous county in the United States after Los Angeles County. The county has 5,194,675 residents, which is 40.5 percent of all Illinois residents. Cook County's population is larger than...

, 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...

. The population was 24,607 at the 2000 census.

Geography

Rolling Meadows is located at 42°4′34"N 88°1′33"W (42.076209, -88.025911).

According to the United States Census Bureau
United 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 5.5 square miles (14.2 km²), all of it battlecrosses.

History

Rolling Meadows is located in Cook County and is 24 miles (38.6 km) NW of the Loop. In 1836 Orrin Ford became the first landowner in the area that is now Rolling Meadows, staking his claim of 160 acre (0.6474976 km²) in the tranquil forests and gently rolling terrain of an area known as Plum Grove. Other farm families followed, many traveling from Vermont. By the early 1840s settlers had built a dam across Salt Creek and had laid claim to the entire Plum Grove area.

The community became part of newly formed Palatine Township in 1850 as German immigrants arrived. In 1862 they erected the Salem Evangelical Church, whose 40 feet (12.2 m)-square church cemetery at the corner of Kirchoff and Plum Grove Roads still stands today, a bit of history amid bustling traffic and a strip shopping center.

In 1927, H. D. “Curly” Brown bought 1000 acres (4 km²) of what became Rolling Meadows to build a golf course and land adjacent to it for a racetrack. In the early 1950s Kimball Hill purchased the land intended for the golf course, and began home sales by advertising a floor plan of his basic house in the Chicago Tribune. Although the response was positive, officials in neighboring Arlington Heights protested, hoping to buy the land themselves for estate homes. But prospective buyers of the Kimball Hill homes persuaded the Cook County Board for zoning changes to allow Hill to proceed.

In 1953, the first families moved into the development, which Hill named Rolling Meadows. With a production schedule of 20 houses a week, 700 houses sold by 1955, mostly to blue-collar workers. Hill donated $200 per home for a school system, then built and equipped the first elementary school. He also founded the Rolling Meadows Homeowners' Association, donated land for parks, and funded the Clearbrook Center, a home for the mentally handicapped, which opened in 1955.

Rolling Meadows incorporated in 1955 as a city named for its gently rolling terrain, and soon began annexing land for future development. The town boomed during the 1950s and 1960s as businesses moved into the area. When Crawford's department store opened in the 1950s it was the largest in the northwest suburbs (it closed in 1993). An industrial park opened on North Hicks Road in 1958, and Western Electric opened a facility in the 1960s which employed 1,500 workers. Developers inundated the area with apartment buildings and by 1970 multifamily dwellings made up 35 percent of the total structures in Rolling Meadows. Ramblin' Rose North, renamed Meadow Trace, opened in 1966, followed by Three Fountains. Rolling Meadows complexes, however, suffered from a series of fires in the decade. This prompted the city to become more stringent in their building codes, which had allowed for frame multifamily structures. Single-family housing continued to flourish in Rolling Meadows as developers utilized the natural wooded setting for the subdivisions of Tall Oaks, Dawngate, and Creekside.

By 2000, the population was 24,609, with 19 percent at Hispanic origin, 7 percent Asian, and 3 percent African American. The city had begun revamping commercial areas along Kirchoff Road. To the south on Golf Road, corporations such as 3Com, Helene Curtis, and Charles Industries established bases in what has become known as the Golden Corridor.

Demographics

As of the census
Census
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 24,607 people, 8,923 households, and 6,174 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 4,510.4 people per square mile (1,743.1/km²). There were 9,151 housing units at an average density of 1,677.6 per square mile (648.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 82.33% White, 2.83% African American, 0.27% Native American, 6.61% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 5.95% 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 1.98% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 19.20% of the population.

There were 8,923 households out of which 33.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.8% 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, 9.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.8% were non-families. 24.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.72 and the average family size was 3.26.

In the city the population was spread out with 25.1% under the age of 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 33.9% from 25 to 44, 21.1% from 45 to 64, and 10.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 102.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $59,535, and the median income for a family was $68,571. Males had a median income of $45,101 versus $35,039 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 $26,178. About 3.5% of families and 5.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.4% of those under age 18 and 2.9% of those age 65 or over.

Economy

The Chicago-area office of Huawei
Huawei
Huawei is a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China...

 is located at 3601 Algonquin Road. The Chicago-area sales office of Asiana Airlines
Asiana Airlines
Asiana Airlines Inc. is one of South Korea's two major airlines, along with Korean Air. Asiana has its headquarters in Asiana Town in Osoe-dong, Gangseo-gu, Seoul...

 is located at Suite 1010 of Continental Towers # 3.
The city of Rolling Meadows has recently implemented the use of red light traffic cameras.

Primary and secondary schools

Almost all of Rolling Meadows is served by Palatine Community Consolidated School District 15 http://www.ccsd15.k12.il.us/. District 15 schools in Rolling Meadows include Central Road (K-6), Kimball Hill (K-6), Willow Bend (K-6), John G. Conyers Learning Academy (early childhood and multiple needs), Carl Sandburg Jr. High (7-8) which take students from Thomas Jefferson (K-6) in North Hoffman Estates
Hoffman Estates, Illinois
Hoffman Estates is a northwestern suburb of Chicago in Illinois. The village is located primarily in Cook County with a small section in Kane County, Illinois. As of the 2000 census, the village population was 49,495 and estimated to be 52,520 in 2003...

, Central Road, Kimball Hill and Willow Bend, and Plum Grove Jr. High (7-8), however Plum Grove doesn't serve any of Rolling Meadows.

A very small portion is served by Schaumburg Consolidated School District 54
Community Consolidated School District 54
Schaumburg Community Consolidated School District 54 operates 21 elementary schools, five junior high schools and one combined K-8 school based in Schaumburg, Cook County, Illinois, USA, a suburb of Chicago. It serves Schaumburg and portions of Hoffman Estates, Hanover Park, Elk Grove Village and...

 http://web54.sd54.k12.il.us/.

A small portion extends into Community Consolidated School District 59
Community Consolidated School District 59
Community Consolidated School District 59 has headquarters in Arlington Heights, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Though headquartered in Arlington Heights it's also to be called Elk Grove Community Consolidated District 59, as it serves most of Elk Grove Village and some parts of Arlington Heights,...

 http://www.ccsd59.org/; that portion has no residents.

About half of Rolling Meadows is served by Township High School District 214
Township High School District 214
Township High School District 214 is located in Cook County, Illinois. It is the state's second largest high school district by enrollment .-Schools:* Buffalo Grove High School* Elk Grove High School* John Hersey High School* Prospect High School...

's Rolling Meadows High School
Rolling Meadows High School
Rolling Meadows High School, or RMHS, is a public four-year high school located in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Township High School District 214. It is part of the second largest school district in Illinois, under Chicago...

 http://rmhs.dist214.k12.il.us/index.php. The other half is served by Township High School District 211
Township High School District 211
Township High School District 211 is a school district located in Cook County, Illinois, the largest high school district in Illinois. District 211 serves most of the Palatine and Schaumburg townships, including significant portions of the city of Rolling Meadows and the villages of Hoffman...

 by William Fremd High School
William Fremd High School
William Fremd High School, or Fremd, is a public four-year high school located in Palatine, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Township High School District 211, which also includes James B...

 in Palatine
Palatine, Illinois
Palatine is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a northwestern residential suburb of Chicago. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 65,479, making it the sixth-largest community in Cook County and the 16th-largest in the state of Illinois at that time...

. http://www.d211.org/.

St. Colette School http://www.stcolette.com is a PreK-8 Catholic school serving all of Rolling Meadows. St. Colette School was awarded as a 2007 Blue Ribbon School from the U.S. Department of Education. The Rolling Meadows Park District http://www.rmparks.org offers early childhood classes.

Park districts

Rolling Meadows Park District

As a separate Municipal Governing Agency, the Rolling Meadows Park District's purpose is to provide parks, facilities and recreation programs for the children and adults of the community. The Park District's policies for operation are governed by seven elected Commissioners.

The Rolling Meadows Park District was certified in 1996 and recertified in 2002.

Salt Creek Rural Park District
The Salt Creek Rural Park District was formed in 1956 and operates under the Park District Code of Statutory Laws which directly governs the power, duties, and purposes relating to park districts in the State of Illinois.

Legal voters from the park district elect seven non-paid park commissioners. Commissioners serve 6, 4, and 2 year terms. The Board of Commissioners elect a President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary. The commissioners appoint a Director of Parks and Recreation to manage the day-to-day operations of the district.

The Director of Parks and Recreation hires professional administrative staff to oversee the operation of parks, recreation facilities and recreation programs.

The district provides recreation and leisure services to the residents that live within the corporate boundaries of the district. The corporate boundaries of the district include parts of the Village of Arlington Heights, Palatine and the City of Rolling Meadows.

The district also provides recreation and leisure services to many non-residents of the area on a fee basis.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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