Welcome to Mount Prospect
A Dynamic Community
With an eventful past and prosperous future, Mount Prospect is one of the leading communities in Chicago’s northwestern suburbs. It’s a dynamic area of tree-lined neighborhoods and economic opportunity in which residents have access to outstanding schools, healthcare and recreational facilities.
Hard work and innovation have always been hallmarks of Mount Prospect. The village has been home to some of Chicago’s most famous faces as well as the world-famous Illinois Range Co., one of the first suppliers of restaurant equipment for Ray Kroc’s McDonald’s franchises in the late 1950s. What’s more, Mount Prospect’s progressive nature has put it at the forefront of national trends. The village’s first doctor was a woman (Louise Koester), and Mount Prospect had one of the first female mayors in the Chicago area (Carolyn Krause, who now serves as an Illinois state representative).
Mount Prospect’s earliest years were unassuming. The area had long been home to Potawatomi Indians, and a wave of German settlers arrived in the 1840s. One family of German immigrants, Friedrich and Johanna Busse, played an important role in establishing the region as a community. The Busses’ quest for good farmland led them west from Chicago down the Algonquin Trail. An overnight stay in the Elk Grove Township Inn in 1848 and a chance remark led innkeeper Samuel Page to offer the Busses 160 acres of land (complete with growing crops, animals, tools and furniture) for $2,700.
The train arrived in 1850, and developer Ezra Eggleston purchased most of the land that in 1874 became downtown Mount Prospect. The village’s name, derived by Eggleston, literally conveyed its position as the highest land in Cook County and the great prospects of the community.
In 1917, the Village’s population was 299, and the birth of its next citizen on January 7, 1917 gave Mount Prospect the requisite 300 residents for incorporation.
Mount Prospect’s population now approaches 60,000 – and more families and businesses are reinvesting in the community to build on the Village’s strong foundation to create a superb quality of life for today and tomorrow.
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