Blue Island, Illinois | |
|---|---|
City | |
 | |
 Flag  Seal  Logo | |
| Nickname: The City on the Hill | |
| Motto: "Discover Blue Island: The Historic Heart of Chicago Southland" | |
 Location of Blue Island in Cook County, Illinois. | |
  Blue Island, Illinois Location within the state of Illinois  Blue Island, Illinois Blue Island, Illinois (the United States) | |
| Coordinates: 41°39′26″N 87°40′48″W / 41.65722°N 87.68000°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Illinois |
| Counties | Cook |
| Townships | Bremen, Worth, Thornton |
| Settled | 1835 |
| Incorporated | October 26, 1872 |
| Government | |
| • Type | Mayor-council government |
| • Mayor | Fred Bilotto (United Blue Island) |
| • City Council | Aldermen
|
| • State House | Robert Rita (D) |
| • State Senate | Emil Jones, Jr. (D) |
| • U.S. House | Representatives
|
| Area | |
| • Total | 4.16 sq mi (10.77 km2) |
| • Land | 4.07 sq mi (10.54 km2) |
| • Water | 0.09 sq mi (0.22 km2) 2.16% |
| Elevation | 640 ft (195 m) |
| Population (2020) | |
| • Total | 22,558 |
| • Density | 5,541.14/sq mi (2,139.34/km2) |
| • Demonym | Blue Islander |
| Time zone | UTC−6 (CST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−5 (CDT) |
| ZIP code | 60406[2] |
| Area codes | 708/464 |
| FIPS code | 17-06704 |
| Website | www |
Blue Island is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, located approximately 16 miles (26 km) south of Chicago's Loop.[3] Blue Island is adjacent to the city of Chicago and shares its northern boundary with that city's Morgan Park neighborhood. The population was 22,558 at the 2020 United States Census.
Blue Island was established in the 1830s as a way station for settlers traveling on the Vincennes Trace,[4] and the settlement prospered because it was conveniently situated a day's journey outside of Chicago. The late-nineteenth-century historian and publisher Alfred T. Andreas made the following observation regarding the appearance of the young community in History of Cook County Illinois (1884), "The location of Blue Island Village is a beautiful one. Nowhere about Chicago is there to be found a more pleasant and desirable resident locality."[5]
Since its founding, the city has been an important commercial center in the south Cook County region, although its position in that respect has been eclipsed in recent years as other significant population centers developed around it and the region's commercial resources became spread over a wider area. In addition to its broad long-standing industrial base, the city enjoyed notable growth in the 1840s during the construction of the feeder canal (now the Calumet Sag Channel) for the Illinois and Michigan Canal and as the center of a large brick-making industry beginning in the 1850s, which eventually gave Blue Island the status of brick-making capital of the world.[6] Beginning in 1883, Blue Island was also host to the car shops of the Rock Island Railroad.[7] Blue Island was home to several breweries, who used the east side of the hill to store their product before the advent of refrigeration, until the Eighteenth Amendment made these breweries illegal in 1919. A large regional hospital and two major clinics are also located in the city.
Although initially settled by "Yankee" stock, Blue Island has been the point of entry for many of America's immigrants, beginning in the 1840s with the arrival of a large German population that remained a prominent part of the city's ethnic makeup for many years. By 1850, half of Blue Island's population was either foreign-born or the children of foreign-born residents.[8] Later, significant groups came from Italy, Poland, Sweden and Mexico.
The city is one of eleven incorporated areas in Illinois to have been designated by the White House as a "Preserve America" community.[9]
- ^ "2020 U.S. Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
- ^ "Blue Island IL ZIP Code". zipdatamaps.com. 2023. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Blue island
- ^ Quaife, Milo Milton (2010) [1923]. Chicago's Highways, Old and New – From Indian Trail to Motor Road. Chicago: D.F. Keller & Co. pp. 60, 69–70. ISBN 978-1-153-36339-6.
- ^ Andreas, Alfred T. (1884). History of Cook County Illinois. Chicago: A.T. Andreas. p. 629.
- ^ Jebsen, Harry A. A. Jr. (1971). Blue Island, Illinois: The History of a Working-Class Suburb. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, International. p. 131.
- ^ Third Annual Report of the Rock Island, p.9
- ^ Census Schedules, 1850
- ^ "Preserve America | Advisory Council on Historic Preservation". preserveamerica.gov. Archived from the original on July 17, 2018.