Naperville, IL

Naperville is an affluent city in DuPage and Will counties in Illinois in the United States, voted the second best place to live in the United States by Money Magazine in 2006. The United States Census Bureau estimated the population in 2006 at 147,779. Naperville is the fourth largest city in the state, behind Chicago, neighboring Aurora, and Rockford. Approximately 100,000 Napervillians live in DuPage County, while about 50,000 reside in Will County.

Once a quaint farming town, Naperville has evolved into a wealthy city due in part to a massive migration of professionals in the 1990's seeking jobs and globally renowned public schools. This can be seen in part by the enormous growth of high-tech companies such as Tellabs, Lucent Technologies and the BP North American Chemical Headquarters, all located in Naperville. With 150,000 Napervillians averaging $150,000 family incomes, the construction of thousands of multimillion dollar houses across the city has resulted, making Naperville the wealthiest city (with a population of 80,000 and over) in the entire country. U.S. News and World Report recently ranked both Naperville School District 203 high schools among the top 3 percent of high schools in the country. Also, District 204's Neuqua Valley High School won the Grammy Gold Signature School award in 2005, ranking it top in the nation for a music program in a high school.

In July 1831, Joseph Naper arrived at the banks of the DuPage River with his family and friends to found what would be known as Naper's Settlement. Among those original settlers were Naper's wife Almeda Landon, his brother John with wife Betsy Goff, his sister Amy with husband John Murray, and his mother Sarah. Their arrival followed a nearly two-month voyage across three Great Lakes in the Naper brothers' schooner, the Telegraph. Also on that journey were several families who remained in the still raw settlement that would become Chicago, including that of Dexter Graves who is memorialized in Graceland Cemetery by a well-known Loredo Taft statue.

By 1832, over one hundred settlers had arrived at Naper's Settlement. These settlers were temporarily displaced to Fort Dearborn for protection from an anticipated attack by the Sauk tribe. Fort Payne was built at Naper's Settlement, the settlers returned and the attack never materialized. The Pre-Emption House was constructed in 1834, as the Settlement became a stage-coach stop on the road from Chicago to Galena. Reconstructions of Fort Payne and the Pre-Emption House stand as part of Naper Settlement, which was first established by the Naperville Heritage Society and the Naperville Park District in 1969 to preserve some of the community's oldest buildings.[8] After DuPage County was split from Cook County in 1839, Naper's Settlement became the DuPage county seat, a distinction it held until 1868. Naper's Settlement was incorporated as the Village of Naperville in 1857, at which time it had a population of 2,000. Reincorporation as a city occurred in 1890. A predominantly rural community for most of its existence, Naperville experienced a population explosion, starting in the 1960s, but largely during the 1980s and 1990s following the construction of the East-West Tollway (now known as the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway) and North-South tollways. In the past two decades, it has nearly quadrupled in size as Chicagoland's urban sprawl brought corporations, jobs, and wealth to the area.

On April 26, 1946, Naperville was the site of one of the worst train accidents in Chicagoland history. Two Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad trains, the Advance Flyer and the Exposition Flyer, collided 'head to tail' on a single track just west of the Loomis Street grade crossing. The accident killed 45 and injured more than 1000 residents. This event is commemorated in a metal inlay map of Naperville on the southeast corner of Nichols Library's sidewalk area.

Forty acres once housed Nike Site C-70 in Naperville, Illinois. It has since been "Divided into an office park and Nike Park, part of the Naperville Park District, with soccer, softball and Little League fields. It is located at the south-east corner of Mill Street and Diehl Road in northern Naperville.

The March 2006 issue of Chicago magazine cites a mid-1970s decision to make and keep all parking in downtown Naperville free in order to keep downtown Naperville "alive" in the face of competition with Fox Valley Mall in Aurora and the subsequent sprawl of strip shopping malls. Existing parking meters were taken down, parking in garages built in the 1980s and 1990s is free, and parking is still available on major thoroughfares during non-peak hours.

Naperville marked the 175th anniversary of its 1831 founding in 2006. The anniversary events included a series of celebrations, concerts and a balloon parade.

Culture
 
Nichols LibraryThe Naperville Public Library has been ranked #1 in the United States for eight straight years, from 1999-2006, for cities with populations between 100,000 and 249,999 by American Libraries magazine.

There are three public library locations within city limits.

The Nichols Library is located in downtown Naperville, at 200 W. Jefferson Street. It has been in this location since 1986. It is a 63,000 square feet (5,900 m�) structure and is pictured at right. The previous library building still stands on Washington Street, just south of the YMCA building, at Washington and Van Buren.

The Naper Boulevard Library was dedicated in December 1992 and underwent internal renovations in 1996. It is located at 2035 S. Naper Boulevard and is the smallest of the three buildings at 32,000 square feet (3,000 m�).

The 95th Street Library is located near the intersection of 95th Street and Route 59, at 3015 Cedar Glade Drive (just west of Neuqua Valley High School). It is the newest (opened in September 2003) and largest of the three libraries at 73,000 square feet (6,800 m�)[14] and features a modern, curving architectural style.

In May 2005, a local technology company was contracted to install fingerprint scanners as a more convenient access method to the libraries internet computers, provoking some controversy. After further testing, the technology was not implemented.

The three libraries are used heavily by the public including around one and a half million visitors and a circulation of about four million items yearly.

Tourism

Moser Tower and Millennium Carillon

In 1999, Naperville was designated a White House Millennium Community, due to the construction of the Moser Tower and Millennium Carillon. The tower is located just north of Aurora Avenue and at the base of Rotary Hill within the Riverwalk Park complex. The Millennium Carillon is specially designated as a Grand Carillon, with 72 bells, and is one of only four worldwide that span six octaves. The Millennium Carillon was dedicated in an Independence Day event on June 29, 2000, with a reception attended by over 15,000, and a performance by the Naperville Municipal Band and the Naperville Men's Glee Club and Festival Chorus. The Carillon is both manually and also computer-playable, with most performances being done by hand, but with half the bells played by a computer-controlled system at set times during the day. The Carillon instrument was dedicated in June of 2000 and Moser Tower was opened to the public in the summer of 2007. The design of the tower won an award for "Best Custom Solution" from the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI). The City of Naperville was designated a White House Millennium Community in 1998 because of the Millennium Carillon project.

Economy
Naperville is located in the Illinois Technology and Research Corridor. Employers contributing to the population explosion of the 1980s and 1990s include Bell Labs, Western Electric, BP Amoco Labs, Nalco Chemical, Nicor, Porsche Finance and Edward Hospital. Tellabs and Laidlaw have corporate headquarters in Naperville, and ConAgra's Grocery division offices are also in Naperville. OfficeMax moved corporate headquarters to Naperville in 2006. Also, Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory are nearby. Naperville was one of the ten fastest growing communities in the United States during the 1990s.

Naperville is also home to one of the largest congregations of automobile retailers in the state, as part of the "Ogden Avenue Strip," which extends from Hinsdale to Aurora and includes every mainstream make of automobile available. AutoNation and Bill Jacobs are two of the largest groups within the city itself.

Naperville is also home to a plant and the headquarters of Dukane Precast, one of the area's major precast concrete manufacturers.

Naperville, IL Schools
 
Colleges and universities
North Central College is located on a 59 acre campus in Downtown Naperville on Chicago Avenue. It was founded by a predecessor church to the United Methodist Church in 1861 and has been located in Naperville since 1870. The college remains affiliated with the United Methodist Church.

Northern Illinois University maintains a satellite campus on Diehl Road offering several degrees at its 113,000-square-foot (10,500 m�) facility.
DePaul University maintains a satellite campus on Warrenville Road. It has been in Naperville since 1997.

The College of DuPage Naperville Center is located on Rickert Drive.
DeVry University maintains a satellite campus on Westings Avenue in Naperville.

Governors State University recently opened a satellite campus on West 95th Street in Naperville.

Northwestern Business College has a Naperville campus on North Mill Street.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign opened a Business & Industry Services campus in Naperville in 2007.

Primary and secondary schools
Two K-12 public school districts serve the city of Naperville (along with a number of private, parochial schools, including private schools in neighboring Aurora and Lisle). Within the state of Illinois, school districts are numbered by their county.
 
Neuqua Valley High School
Naperville Community Unit School District 203, established in 1972 through the merger of elementary and high school districts, serves central Naperville (as well as portions of neighboring Lisle and Bolingbrook). The current District 203 school buildings were constructed between 1928 (Ellsworth) and 1990 (Kingsley).

The district has two high schools: Naperville Central High School and Naperville North High School, five junior high schools, and thirteen elementary schools within Naperville city limits.

Indian Prairie School District 204 was also formed through merged districts in 1972. Waubonsie Valley High School, Neuqua Valley High School, Metea Valley High School (Opening Fall 2009), along with six middle schools and 14 elementary schools from this district, are within Naperville city limits. The district also serves western and southwestern Naperville, along with eastern Aurora and parts of Bolingbrook.

Health systems
Edward Hospital serves Naperville while Good Samaritan in Downers Grove, Central DuPage in Winfield and two other hospitals in nearby Aurora also serve the city. For many years, Edward Hospital and others have tried to introduce a new hospital into Naperville only to have their request turned down. Thus, Naperville remains the only large Illinois city with only one hospital. Edward Hospital currently is trying to open a hospital in nearby Plainfield to help Naperville citizens with travel times to Edward Hospital.

Parks
 
View of the Riverwalk Quarry in Naperville, Illinois, USA from Eagle Street, near Jackson Street. Moser Tower is in the right-center background and Rotary Hill (serving as a sled hill) is in the left background.The Naperville Park District manages and provides leisure and recreational activities for Naperville and nearby residents of all ages. The District was established by referendum in 1966. As of 2007, the Park District manages over 2,400 acres (10 km�) of open space, including over 130 parks and four sports complexes.[30] The Park District also manages two golf courses, Springbrook and Naperbrook.[31] In addition, the Park District is responsible for the Naperville Riverwalk, construction of which began in 1981, marking the 150th anniversary of the first Joseph Naper's settlement. Some of the other facilities managed by the Park District include:

Centennial Beach, with adjacent Centennial Park.
Two parks dedicated to skateboarding and in-line skating, at Frontier Sports Complex and Centennial Park.
Commissioners Park, which includes Naperville's first official Cricket pitch, opened in 2006.
Alfred Rubin Riverwalk Community Center
Community Garden Plots, located on West Street.
Knoch Knolls Park, which includes a nine-hole frisbee golf course, located on 95th Street.
Naperville Sportsman's Club - Trap shooting range
 

Information courtesy of Wikipedia


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