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VILLAGE OF BARRINGTON HILLS, ILLINOIS CHIEF OF 0
<br />s
<br />_ THE COMMUNITY
<br />Barrington Hills, with a population of 4,114 (2020 census) is
<br />located 40 miles Northwest of Chicago, Illinois situated on 30
<br />square miles of open lands. The Village's quiet and harmonious
<br />-a
<br />atmosphere is showcased by its active residents who enjoy
<br />abundant large lots, farms, barns, trails and quiet anonymity.
<br />Barrington Hills is a peaceful oasis with primarily residential
<br />'
<br />properties, an excellent school system, and easy access to
<br />surrounding areas and Chicago via 1-90 and the Metra. The
<br />Y
<br />community is known for the property freedoms residents':
<br />enjoy as well as an abundance of outdoor activities including
<br />t` "
<br />equestrian pursuits.
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<br />COMMUNITY HISTORYAND BACKGROUND
<br />The Barrington area was first settled in the 1830s as
<br />a farming community, with the Village of Barrington
<br />incorporating in 1865.
<br />With gently rolling hills, many covered in towering oak
<br />trees, natural kettle moraine lakes and ponds, open
<br />spaces, the Barrington area in the late nineteenth and
<br />early twentieth centuries attracted affluent Chicago
<br />families looking for a summer retreat from the crowded
<br />city, yet within a day's journey by horse and buggy, and
<br />later by automobile or train.
<br />These new residents purchased farms and built their
<br />estates, continuing to operate "gentlemen farms" with
<br />farm managers to run them. With the completion of the
<br />Chicago and Northwestern Railway, the travel time from
<br />Chicago enabled these residents to live in the Barrington
<br />Countryside and work in Chicago. In 1921, a group of
<br />these prominent Chicago businessmen purchased the
<br />220 acres for the Barrington Hills Country Club and the
<br />nucleus of what was to become the Village of Barrington
<br />Hills was born.
<br />As more families moved to the Barrington Countryside,
<br />the Country Club, the Riding Club of Barrington Hills, and
<br />the Fox River Valley Hunt became the social networks
<br />for their rural community with shopping close by in the
<br />Village of Barrington.
<br />In the prosperous mid-1950's, as post-war economic
<br />development blossomed, and the new network of roads
<br />and commuter railroads made the suburbs accessible to
<br />many more Americans anxious to move from the cities,
<br />large-scale housing developments began to sprout up
<br />on what had been rural farmland. When developers
<br />purchased several thousand acres south of the Barrington
<br />area in Bartlett, and then in nearby Carpentersville for
<br />hundreds of homes on quarter acre lots, farsighted
<br />Barrington Hills residents realized that if the Barrington
<br />Countryside was to remain a rural oasis in a sprawling
<br />urbanization movement, and retain its five (5) acre
<br />minimum zoning, that incorporating as a Village was the
<br />only way to preserve this "special way of life" that had
<br />been the core of the Countryside since its inception more
<br />than 50 years earlier.
<br />Andrew Dallstream, a prominent Chicago attorney, and
<br />president of the Cook County Zoning Board organized a
<br />group of Barrington residents to persuade their friends
<br />and neighbors to sign petitions to incorporate as the
<br />Village of Barrington Hills. After many months of effort,
<br />the Village of Barrington Hills was incorporated on
<br />July 5, 1957.
<br />The Village has over 5,000 acres of Forest Preserve within
<br />its borders. The Riding Club of Barrington Hills, founded
<br />in 1937, has maintained a private trail system throughout
<br />the Village with the generosity of landowners who allow
<br />members to ride horses across their property.
<br />In today's busy, often impersonal world, Barrington Hills
<br />is an oasis of another time, another way of life, where
<br />residents not only know each other, but join together to
<br />enjoy their interests and hobbies, and participate in the
<br />village -wide events like the annual Independence Day Run,
<br />the Barrington Hills Fall Festival in September, or those
<br />pertaining to conservation, equestrian, education, the
<br />country club or the many casual neighbor get-togethers.
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