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'Park Ridge, Illinois', is a suburb of 37,775 residents, 15 miles northwest of downtown Chicago, close to O'Hare Airport, major expressways and rail transportation.
Park Ridge is said to be located on the highest ridge in Cook County. While this is not true, it does lie on a ridge. The soil is abundant with clay deposits, which made it a brick-making center for the developing city of Chicago. Park Ridge was originally called Pennyville to honor George Penny, the businessman who owned the local brickyard along with Robert Meacham. Later it was named Brickton. The Des Plaines River divides Park Ridge from neighboring Des Plaines, Illinois, which is west of Park Ridge. Chicago is both south and east of Park Ridge, and Niles is to its north.
Park Ridge is the hometown of former First Lady & current U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. When she visited Park Ridge on the occasion of her 50th birthday in 1997, the city renamed the southeast corner of the intersection of Elm and Wisner Streets, next to her girlhood home, "Rodham Corner."
The city is also home to the headquarters of the Big Ten Conference.

Contents

Landmarks

Geography

Demographics

Education

Famous residents

External links

Landmarks

Park Ridge's most recognizable landmark is the Pickwick Theatre, an art deco building dating back to 1928. In addition to be ing a movie theater, it is also a venue for plays and concerts. In 1975, the theater was named to the National Register of Historic Places. Although smaller theaters have been added to the rear of the building, the main auditorium theater remains intact in its original large five-aisle state. The main auditorium can seat up to 1,250 people. In the 1980s, The Pickwick's facade was one of many used as the backdrop for the opening credits of Siskel and Ebert's "At the Movies."

Geography

Park Ridge is located at (42.011830, -87.841587).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 18.3 km² (7.1 mi²). 18.2 km² (7.0 mi²) of it is land and 0.1 km² (0.04 mi²) of it (0.57%) is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 37,775 people, 14,219 households, and 10,465 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,074.7/km² (5,374.6/mi²). There were 14,646 housing units at an average density of 804.4/km² (2,083.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 95.38% White, 0.24% African American, 0.06% Native American, 2.66% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.87% from other races, and 0.74% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.95% of the population.
There were 14,219 households out of which 32.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.4% were married couples living together, 8.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.4% were non-families. 24.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.13. The median cost of a house is $398,000.
The City's population consists of 24.5% persons under the age of 18, 5.5% aged 18 to 24, 24.5% aged 25 to 44, 25.8% aged 45 to 64, and 19.6% age 65 or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 90.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.2 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $73,302, and the median income for a family was $89,066. Males had a median income of $61,959 versus $39,794 for females. The per capita income for the city was $36,646. About 1.7% of families and 2.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.1% of those under age 18 and 3.1% of those age 65 or over.

Education

Park Ridge is served by elementary and middle school District 64; high school District 207 including Maine South High School, and Maine East High School. Students who live in northern Park Ridge have the option of attending either Maine East or Maine South. Maine South serves Park Ridge while Maine East mostly serves Des Plaines and Niles. Area middle schools include Emerson Middle School, home of the Eagles, and Lincoln Middle School, home of the Lions. There are also five public K-5 elementary schools: Carpenter, Field, Franklin, Roosevelt, and Washington.There is also Jefferson pre-kindergarten school
Maine Township High School District 207 shares student run radio and television stations operating with the call letters WMTH-FM ('W' 'M'aine 'T'ownship 'H'igh). Actor Harrison Ford has been credited as being the radio station's first sports announcer.

Famous residents

★ Dr. Dante "Dan" Amidei, Physicist, a principal investigator and key member of the large Collider Detector at Fermilab collaboration which discovered, and computed the mass of, the top quark to complete the quark model within the Standard Model of particle physics; a principal investigator and key member of the ATLAS experiment, a large particle detector collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN; presently working to discover the Higgs boson

★ Hillary Clinton - Former First Lady, Senator from New York, running for 2008 U.S. president.

★ Grant Wood - Painter, most famous for painting American Gothic

★ Vincent A. Mahler - Prominent Political Science Professor

★ Melissa Elias - Former Bassist for The Ponys

★ Gary Cole - Actor

★ Karen Black - Actress

★ Steve Wilkos - Director of Security and co-host for the ''Jerry Springer Show''

★ Ron Santo - Professional baseball player

★ Ted Ansani - Former Bassist for the band Material Issue

★ Harrison Ford- Actor

★ Danny Corkill - Child actor

★ Adam Jones - Guitarist for the rock band Tool

★ Mike North - Radio Personality

★ Ray Ozzie - Prominent software engineer, now Chief Software Architect at Microsoft

★ Dave Butz - NFL player for the Washington Redskins

★ Carrie Snodgress - Actress

★ Janet Shamlian - national correspondent NBC News

★ Greg Glienna - Movie Writer, "Meet the Parents"

★ Jim Hendry - Chicago Cubs General Manager

★ Dana Olsen - Screenwriter, "George of the Jungle", "The 'Burbs" and "Inspector Gadget".

★ James Pankow - Founding member of the rock band Chicago

★ John Pankow - Film and stage actor

★ Matt Hader - screenwriter, The American Screenwriters Association Board Member

★ The Amazing Race [Family Edition] featured 4 Park Ridge residents, Walter, Elizabeth, Lauren, and Lindsay Bransen.

★ NHL player Craig Anderson is from Park Ridge

External links

★ Park Ridge city website

★ Park Ridge Community Network, from Park Ridge Public Library

★ A history of Park Ridge, Illinois