Crystal Lake is a city in McHenry County, Illinois, United States. Named after a lake southwest of the city's downtown, Crystal Lake is northwest of Chicago. The population was 40,269 as of the 2020 census. Crystal Lake is the most populous city in McHenry County, part of the Chicago metropolitan area.
History
Founding
The City of Crystal Lake traces its origins to two communities established in the 1800s. Those communities were generally known as Nunda and Crystal Lake. In 1835, Ziba S. Beardsley came to the shores of the lake and commented that the "waters were as clear as crystal", thereby giving the lake its name. Ziba Beardsley continued south to Naperville. In February 1836, the first white settlers, Beman and Polly Crandall, and six of their ten children arrived from New York State, traveling to Crystal Lake in a covered wagon. Their original cabin was built near today's intersection of Virginia Street and Van Buren Street. Four of the Crandall children were born there. Najah Beardsley's family was the second to settle in the area; his grandson, William Beardsley, was the first white child born on the Crystal Lake prairie, on May 7, 1837.
The town was first known as Crystal Ville. It was changed to Crystal Lake sometime before 1840. The area known today as downtown Crystal Lake was first called Dearborn and later, Nunda, from a location in New York where many settlers originated. The village of Dearborn was founded in the 1850s after railroads were extended through the area. The first train station was built in 1856, although it was pre-fabricated and shipped from Chicago on a flatcar. At that time, the central business district for the village of Crystal Lake was located on Virginia Street, about one mile (1.6 km) southwest of the railroad station. The railroad connected the people and industries of Crystal Lake and Dearborn to Chicago and the rest of the country.
On October 7, 1868, Dearborn's name was changed to Nunda. The village was platted in 1868 by local surveyor John Brink, after whom a downtown street is now named. The village included the area now generally bounded by Illinois Route 176 on the north, Crystal Lake Avenue on the south, Main Street on the east, and Walkup Avenue on the west. Much of the land was originally owned by two early settlers, Daniel Ellsworth and Simon S. Gates. The villages of Crystal Lake and Nunda were both incorporated in 1874. In 1908, the village of Nunda changed its name to North Crystal Lake. Several attempts were made to consolidate the two villages, and, after much disagreement, the Village of North Crystal Lake was annexed to the Village of Crystal Lake in 1914, and a consolidated city government was established.
Dole family
Back in the 1860s, when the town of Crystal Lake was about 25 years old, Charles S. Dole purchased over of land overlooking the lake. It was his dream to construct an elaborate estate that would reflect his position as a successful businessman. He was an early member of the Chicago Board of Trade, being associated with Armour, Dole & Co. in Chicago. To carry out his plan, he built a three-story mansion with adjoining gardens and stables. European artisans were imported to lay parquet floors, fashion archways, and carve interior woodwork from black walnut trees grown on the property. As a final touch, he brought in Italian artisans to build several marble fireplaces. According to Dole's obituary, construction costs exceeded $100,000, an enormous amount of money in those days.
The estate was known as Lakeland Farm. Dole lived there with his wife, Julia, his mother-in-law, Mrs. Harriet Coffin, his two daughters, Mary Florence and Harriet (Hattie), and his son, Sydney. Dole maintained the estate for over 30 years, entertaining lavishly. For example, for his daughter's wedding in 1883, he built a spur line from the Chicago and Northwestern Railway tracks almost to his doorstep. A canopied, carpeted walkway extended from the front door to the train, enabling guests to walk to the mansion for the ceremony and return to the train without concern for the weather. Notable wedding guests included Julian Rumsey (mayor of Chicago and Dole's first cousin) and Levi Leiter (first partner with Marshall Field).
Dole's interests changed throughout the years. He laid out a half-mile racetrack on his property and purchased the finest horses that money could buy, soon accumulating a string of horses that was the envy of northern Illinois. It is said that Dole loved to go up to his tower (currently closed) and watch his horses run. When tired of the fad of his stable, he disposed of his horses by holding an elaborate sale. The Doles lived in the mansion until the late 1890s, when the property was sold to his son-in-law for $1.00.
During the early 1900s, the property was owned and operated by several ice companies. Ice was harvested from Crystal Lake and shipped by rail to nearby Chicago. The advent of refrigeration brought about the decline of the ice business. After lying vacant for several years, the property was sold in 1922 to the Lake Development Company. The building was purchased by the First Congregational Church of Crystal Lake in 1977. The annex portion of the structure was renovated through thousands of volunteer hours. The Church named the facility "Lakeside Center". It operated it as a community activities center, hosting Friendship House Day Care Center for children, church offices, meeting rooms, reception hall, and retreat facilities. Today, the Dole Mansion is owned by Lakeside Legacy, along with Lakeside Center, the building connected to it. Dole Mansion is located along the lake, and a festival is held on the grounds every year.
Eliza Ringling Ringling Road is an east–west road which curves from Country Club Road back up to Lake Avenue. There are fewer than one dozen houses that claim a Ringling Road address, but those houses range from a small, stone cottage to large, imposing mansions. Ringling Road provides the northern boundary for the Dole Mansion property. The road was named after Eliza "Lou" Ringling, who, as founder of the Lake Development Company, purchased the Dole Mansion in 1922 and converted it into the Crystal Lake Country Club. The transaction involved nearly half a million dollars and was one of the largest real estate deals handled in the area. The original Crystal Lake Country Club faltered during the 1929 stock market crash. Mrs. Ringling, with her group of investors (the Lake Development Company) subdivided much of the large Dole estate into what is known as the Country Club Additions subdivision parts of which are in the neighboring village Lakewood, Illinois.
Eliza "Lou" Ringling was the widow of the oldest Ringling brother, Albert, of circus fame.
Teco pottery The American Terra Cotta Tile and Ceramic Company was founded in 1881 just north of Crystal Lake, Illinois. Most of the workers at the tile and ceramic works factory lived in Crystal Lake, The production consisted of drain tile, brick and architectural items. In 1886, the Gates Pottery was established as a subsidiary of William D. Gates, a Crystal Lake-area native, as its president. The company fabricated architectural glazed terra cotta used on buildings designed by architects Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright in the Prairie School style. American Terra Cotta's company records show that architectural glazed terra cotta was used on many local buildings including Oak Manufacturing Company, Teckler Building, Cohn Store, Telephone Exchange and Commercial Building, El Tovar Theatre, Crystal Lake Community High School (now Crystal Lake Central High School) and additions, Central School and additions, Pure Oil Research Lab and additions, Sinclair Refining Company Service Station, Warner Building, Citizens State Bank, Garbe Garage, Home State Bank, various Williams Street stores and bakeries, and Martinetti's Restaurant and Motel.
Gates used the facilities to experiment with clays and glazes in an effort to design a line of art pottery, which led to the introduction of Teco pottery (from Terra Cotta, but pronounced locally as "Tea-co") in 1902. Many of the pottery pieces were designed by architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright.Darling, Sharon S., Teco Art Pottery of the Prairie School Produced for only a few years, this pottery exemplifies the Arts and Crafts Movement and today is highly sought after by art collectors. Teco pottery is in the collection of many museums.
Recent history
On April 11, 1965, during the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak, a large and devastating tornado damaged or destroyed large portions of the city. The tornado killed six people and further 75 wounded. Damage to the town totaled over $1.5 million, with 80 homes, mainly in the Coventry and Colby's Home Estates neighborhoods, damaged. A shopping center was utterly destroyed. Disaster shelters were set up to house people experiencing homelessness, and then-governor of Illinois, Otto Kerner, Jr., personally visited the city to view the damage.
Crystal Lake is the city where the tradition of giving gold coins to the Salvation Army anonymously began in 1982.Chicago Tribune, 2013-12-08, Page 3
From 1972 to 1986, the Academy Awards Oscar statues were cast in Crystal Lake.
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Crystal Lake's history was marked by the growth of suburban subdivisions, as the population increased from 21,823 in the 1990 Census to 38,000 in the 2000 Census. To address growth, Crystal Lake South High School was opened in 1978. Previously, Crystal Lake Community High School (now Crystal Lake Central High School) had served the entire city of Crystal Lake since 1924. A third high school, Prairie Ridge High School, opened in 1997 north of the town to accommodate the spread moving into the area between Crystal Lake and the two communities directly to its north, Prairie Grove and Bull Valley.
On July 7, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden visited McHenry County College in Crystal Lake, becoming the first sitting president to see the city. Then-Vice President George H. W. Bush had twice visited Crystal Lake in 1988 while campaigning for president.
Geography According to the 2010 census, Crystal Lake has a total area of , of which (or 96.8%) is land and (or 3.2%) is water.
In 2023, census data reported that Crystal Lake has a total area of 18.985 square miles (49.10 km2), of which 18.35 square miles (47.53 km2) (or 96.8%) is land and 0.613 square miles (1.59 km2) (or 3.2%) is water.
Neighborhoods
As the largest city in McHenry County, Crystal Lake has three high schools and many distinct neighborhoods.
Starting from the north of the city, the ten largest neighborhoods are easy to trace out. The first has no de facto name like the others, but is referred to as "by Prairie Ridge," referring to the nearby high school of the same name. Houses in this neighborhood are large and widely spaced. The entire area lies just to the north of the city, from the downtown area to the adjacent community of Bull Valley. Some of the communities include Deer Wood, Covered Bridge Trails, and Walk-up Woods. Next is downtown Crystal Lake, which surrounds Crystal Lake Central High School. Houses here range significantly in size and age, and it is the most diverse neighborhood in the city. Directly south of downtown Crystal Lake is the Coventry neighborhood, named for the major through street, Coventry Lane. Students in the Coventry neighborhood attend either Central High School of Crystal Lake or Crystal Lake South High School. Oral tradition holds that Coventry was initially populated by pilots who flew out of O'Hare Airport. The neighborhood, Burtons Bridge, is located at the north-eastern side of Crystal Lake, adjacent to the Fox River.