Orland Park, Illinois
Orland Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, with a small portion in Will County. It is a suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, Orland Park had a population of 58,703. Located 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Chicago, Orland Park is close to several interstate highways, with the I-80 east-west coast connector as its southern border. The Metra commuter rail system links it to the Chicago Loop and from there to O'Hare and Midway airports.
Orland Park, Illinois
Illinois
May 31, 1892
22.31 sq mi (57.79 km2)
22.03 sq mi (57.05 km2)
0.28 sq mi (0.74 km2) 1.31%
686 ft (209 m)
58,703
2,664.93/sq mi (1,028.92/km2)
$35,320
$292,200
56640
17-56640
History[edit]
Orland Park was first settled as "Orland" in 1834, with Henry Taylor being the area's first settler. Other original settlers include Ichabod and William Myrick, Jacob and Bernard Hostert, Thomas Cooper and John Humphrey. The Hostert brothers built log cabins for their families, which became some of the first homes built in Orland Park. In 1879 the railroad was extended to Orland Park, leading way for the towns first train station, "Sedgwick Station." This development took the town from an agrarian society to a commercial hub that provides shipping services to local farms.[4] The village was incorporated on May 31, 1892.[5]
Orland Park’s growth since the mid-20th century has been largely driven by waves of white flight from Chicago’s South Side and inner-ring suburbs.
Orland Square Mall opened in 1976.
Geography[edit]
According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Orland Park has a total area of 22.31 square miles (57.78 km2), of which 22.03 square miles (57.06 km2) (or 98.72%) is land and 0.29 square miles (0.75 km2) (or 1.28%) is water.[6]
The main bodies of water in Orland are two lakes: Lake Sedgewick and McGinnis Slough.
Communities bordering Orland Park include Homer Glen (in Will County) to the west, Orland Hills and Mokena (also in Will County but Orland Hills is in Cook County) to the south, Tinley Park to the southeast, Oak Forest to the east, and Palos Park and Palos Heights to the north.
Government and politics[edit]
Government[edit]
Orland Park is contained in the Illinois's 6th congressional district, which is currently represented by Sean Casten (D).
The village maintained an Aa2 bond rating from Moody's and an AA+ rating from Standard and Poor's. These are among the best bond ratings in the Chicago suburbs.(Page 12)[15]
The elected Board of Trustees makes local legislation for the village. The elected officials include the village president (who also serves as mayor), village clerk, and six village trustees, each of whom is elected at large to a four-year term.[16]
Education[edit]
Orland Park is served by four grammar school districts, Orland School District #135 (7 primary schools, 3 middle schools: Century Junior High, Jerling Junior High, and Orland Junior High), Community Consolidated School District #146 (4 primary schools, and Central Middle School), Palos School District #118 (2 primary schools, and Palos South Middle School), and Kirby School District #140 (5 primary schools, 2 middle schools: Prairie View Middle School, and Virgil I Grissom Middle School). A majority of Orland Park is within Orland School District #135.
St. Michael School is in Orland Park. A number of other parochial schools in the region provide bus service for Orland Park students.
Orland Park's major high schools are Carl Sandburg High School, Victor J. Andrew High School and Amos Alonzo Stagg High School. CSHS has a little less than 4,000 students. Sandburg has won several Regional, Sectional, and State sports titles over the years. Sandburg's ACT composite score for 2007-08 was 22.7 with SAT scores averaging 635, 644 and 630 for Critical Reading, Math and Writing, respectively.
A number of higher education facilities are in the village. St. Xavier University operates a satellite campus in Orland Park, as did the ITT Technical Institute until its closing in September 2016. Robert Morris University (Illinois) has both an Orland Park campus as well as a second facility in the village, the culinary arts school. Community college education is offered at Moraine Valley Community College, in nearby Palos Hills.
Sixty percent of Orland Park households have someone with at least a bachelor's degree, with a significant number of residents having completed postgraduate work.
Media[edit]
Local cable television channel Orland Park TV can be viewed on AT&T UVerse Channel 99 and Comcast Channel 4.
southern border of Orland Park
I-80
another major north-south thoroughfare
IL 7
Orland Park has three stops on Metra's SouthWest Service, which provides weekday and weekend rail service between Manhattan, Illinois, and Chicago Union Station): 143rd Street, 153rd Street, and 179th Street.
Pace provides bus service on multiple routes connecting Orland Park to destinations throughout the Southland.[28]
Major highway transportation corridors are: