Evanston is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Evanston lies on Lake Michigan north of the Loop. A Chicago suburb, it is bordered by Wilmette to the north, Skokie to the west, Chicago to the south, and the lake to the east. Evanston had a population of 78,110 .
Founded by Methodist business leaders in 1857, the city was incorporated in 1863. Evanston is home to Northwestern University, founded in 1851 before the city's incorporation, one of the world's leading research universities. Known for its ethnically diverse population, Evanston is heavily shaped by the influence of Chicago, externally, and Northwestern, internally. The city and the university share a historically complex long-standing relationship.
History
Prior to the 1830s, the area now occupied by Evanston was mainly uninhabited, consisting largely of wetlands and swampy forest. However, Potawatomi Native Americans used trails along higher lying ridges that ran in a general north–south direction through the area, and had at least some semi-permanent settlements along the trails.
French explorers referred to the general area as "Grosse Pointe" after a point of land jutting into Lake Michigan about north of the mouth of the Chicago River. After the first non-Native Americans settled in the area in 1836, the names "Grosse Point Territory" and "Gross Point voting district" were used through the 1830s and 1840s, although the territory had no defined boundaries. The area remained only sparsely settled, supporting some farming and lumber activity on some of the higher ground, as well as a number of taverns or "hotels" along the ridge roads. Grosse Pointe itself steadily eroded into the lake during this period.
In 1850, a township called Ridgeville was organized, extending from Graceland Cemetery in Chicago to the southern edge of the Ouilmette Reservation, along what is now Central Street, and from Lake Michigan to Western Avenue in Chicago. The 1850 census shows a few hundred settlers in this township, and a post office with the name of Ridgeville was established at one of the taverns. However, no municipality yet existed.
In 1851, a group of Methodist business leaders founded Northwestern University and Garrett Biblical Institute. Unable to find available land on the north shore up to Lake Forest, the committee was ready to purchase farmland to the west of the city when Orrington Lunt insisted on one final visit to the present location. They chose a bluffed and wooded site along the lake as Northwestern's home, purchasing several hundred acres of land from John Foster, a Chicago farm owner. In 1854, the founders of Northwestern submitted to the county judge their plans for a city to be named Evanston after John Evans, one of their leaders. In 1857, the request was granted. The township of Evanston was split off from Ridgeville Township; at approximately the same time, that portion of Ridgeville south of Devon Avenue was organized as Lake View Township.
Evanston was formally incorporated as a town on December 29, 1863, but declined in 1869 to become a city despite the Illinois legislature passing a bill for that purpose. Evanston expanded after the Civil War with the annexation of the village of North Evanston. Finally, in early 1892, following the annexation of the village of South Evanston, voters elected to organize as a city. The 1892 boundaries are largely those that exist today.
In the late summer of 1912, the beaches in Evanston were infested with thousands of rats. The rats had burrowed into the sides of the lake banks, dug holes in the sand, and hid under piers. Most of the rats were extremely large and savage, attacking people who disturbed them. Local bathers struggled to navigate the shores, constantly stepping into the hidden rat holes. John Morgan, the manager of an extermination company tasked with removing the vermin, stated that it was not uncommon for rats to live around the lake's shore because of the quantity of dead fish that was cast to shore by the waves. The weather also played a role since the close proximity to the beaches allowed the rats to swim out in the water during the hot summer.
During the 1960s, Northwestern University changed the city's shoreline by adding a lakefill.
In 1939, Evanston hosted the first NCAA basketball championship final at Northwestern University's Patten Gymnasium.
In August 1954, Evanston hosted the second assembly of the World Council of Churches, still the only WCC assembly to have been held in the United States. President Dwight Eisenhower welcomed the delegates, and Dag Hammarskjöld, secretary-general of the United Nations, delivered an important address entitled "An instrument of faith".
Evanston first received power in April 1893. Many people lined the streets on Emerson St. where the first appearance of street lights were lined and turned on. Today, the city is home to Northwestern University, Music Institute of Chicago, and other educational institutions, as well as headquarters of Alpha Phi International women's fraternity, Rotary International, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, the National Lekotek Center, the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, the Sigma Chi fraternity and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Evanston's 117 years as a "dry" town are often attributed to the WCTU, but the ban actually dates to a clause in Northwestern University's charter, which stated "no spiritous, vinous, or fermented liquors shall be sold under license, or otherwise, within four miles" of the school. The WCTU did campaign to keep the ban in place, and it lasted until 1972.
Evanston is the birthplace of Tinkertoys, and is one of the locations claiming to have originated the ice cream sundae.History Channel - Modern Marvels - "Ice Cream Tech" - (2008) Evanston was the home of the Clayton Mark and Company, which for many years supplied the most jobs.
Evanston was a dry community from 1858 until 1972, when the City Council voted to allow restaurants and hotels to serve liquor on their premises. In 1984, the Council voted to allow retail liquor outlets within the city limits.Foerstner, Abigail. "Evanston liquor store to close door on era". Chicago Tribune. July 6, 1984. p. NS-1.
In March 2021, Evanston became the first city in the United States to pay reparations to African American residents (or their descendants) who were victims of unfair housing practices between 1919 and 1969. The city council of the city voted 8 to 1 to approve the reparations which consisted of a $25,000 payment to African American households that can be used as down payments on their homes, house payments or for home repairs. This was the initial payment, with plans to distribute $10 million in reparations payments to Black residents over the next decade. In 2024, a conservative legal group filed a federal lawsuit stating the reparation program's race-based eligibility criteria violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. The city attempted to legally stop the lawsuit but in 2026 a federal judge stated the lawsuit against the city was allowed to proceed.
In August 2021, Evanston became one of the first cities to approve a pilot project providing a guaranteed income to select residents, drawing upon a combination of public funds and a partnership with Northwestern University.
Geography According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Evanston has a total area of , of which (or 99.72%) is land and (or 0.28%) is water.
Climate Action Plan In October 2006, the city voted to sign the United States Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, and a number of citizen task forces convened to develop a plan to reduce the city's carbon footprint. The Evanston Climate Action Plan ("ECAP"), accepted by the City Council in November 2008, suggested over 200 strategies to make Evanston more sustainable, principally by reducing carbon emissions associated with transportation, buildings, energy sources, waste, and food production. In June 2011, the United States Conference of Mayors awarded Evanston first place in the small city category of the Mayors' Climate Protection Awards, based largely on the city's use of the ECAP, which the city asserts has reduced emissions by 24,000 metric tons per year. On September 15, 2011, Wal-Mart presented Mayor Tisdahl with a $15,000 award in recognition of the honor, which the mayor donated to Citizens' Greener Evanston.
Climate information Evanston is in the Hot-summer humid continental climate, or Köppen Dfa zone. The zone includes four distinct seasons. Winter is cold with snow. Spring warms up with precipitation and storms. Summer has high precipitation and storms. Fall cools down.
Demographics
Racial and ethnic composition +Evanston city, Illinois – racial and ethnic compositionRace / ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop. 2000Pop. 2010% 2000% 2010White alone (NH)46,44445,55144,53462.56%61.15%57.01%Black or African American alone (NH)16,44913,13912,32922.16%17.64%15.78%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)9296990.12%0.13%0.13%Asian alone (NH)4,5056,3557,7016.07%8.53%9.86%Pacific Islander alone (NH)5213250.07%0.02%0.03%Other race alone (NH)2822804790.38%0.38%0.61%Mixed race or multiracial (NH)1,8762,3134,1652.53%3.11%5.33%Hispanic or Latino (any race)4,5396,7398,7786.11%9.05%11.24%Total74,23974,48678,110100.00%100.00%100.00%
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Evanston had a population of 78,110, 31,425 households, and 15,184 families. The population density was .
The city had 34,462 housing units at an average density of ; 8.8% of units were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.7% and the rental vacancy rate was 9.6%.
The median age was 36.5 years. 18.4% of residents were under the age of 18 and 16.5% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 91.9 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 88.3 males age 18 and over.
Of the 31,425 households, 25.4% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 40.3% were married-couple households, 20.9% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 33.4% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 36.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.
+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 46,133 59.1% Black or African American 12,542 16.1% American Indian and Alaska Native 523 0.7% Asian 7,751 9.9% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 43 0.1% Some other race 3,482 4.5% Two or more races 7,636 9.8% Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 8,778 11.2%
Economy 12.3% of Evanston's 9,259 businesses were Black-owned in 2012, and 24% of the city's 2,041 employer firms were women-owned in 2017.
Top employers As of 2015, according to the State of Illinois Dept Commerce and Economic Opportunity and Individual Employers, the top employers in the city were:
# Employer # of employees 1 Northwestern University 9,471 2 NorthShore University HealthSystem 3,727 3 Evanston-Skokie School District 65 1,600 4 Saint Francis Hospital 1,272 5 City of Evanston 918 6Presbyterian Homes602 7 Rotary International 525 8 Evanston Township High School District 202 520 9 Jewel-Osco 480 10 C.E. Niehoff & Co. 450
Notable employers Magnetar Capital, a hedge fund based in Evanston ZS Associates, a consulting firm Clayton Mark and Company, steel product manufacturerSmith, S.H.; Mark, S. (2011). https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/ssj/article/view/13413 Legacy.com, online memorial provider
Arts and culture Points of interest Evanston Art Center Evanston Township High School Frances Willard House Free School of Evanston Grosse Point Lighthouse Harley Clarke Mansion Ladd Arboretum Lighthouse Beach Mount Trashmore North Shore Channel Trail