Web Design in Batavia, IL

About Batavia, Kane County

Batavia lies mainly in Kane County with part in DuPage County, on the Fox River in the Chicago metropolitan area, and it was founded in 1833 and is the oldest city in Kane County. The 2020 census counted 26,098 residents across about 10.84 square miles, of which 10.65 square miles is land, at a density near 2,408 per square mile, with 100.0 percent of residents recorded as living in urban areas. Its elevation is given as 715 feet, and its municipal footprint reaches across five townships: Aurora, Batavia, Blackberry and Geneva in Kane County and Winfield in DuPage.

History of Batavia

• Christopher Payne and his family settled the place in 1833 and it was originally called Big Woods, for the wild growth across the settlement. Local judge and former Congressman Isaac Wilson renamed the town in 1840 after his former home of Batavia, New York, itself named for the Batavian Republic that existed in the present-day Netherlands from 1795 to 1806; Wilson was given permission to rename it because he owned the majority of the town. Incorporation followed on July 27, 1872. Thirteen men chartered the Batavia Institute, a private academy, on February 12, 1853, among them the Congregational minister Rev. Stephen Peet, Elijah Shumway Town, Joel McKee, John Van Nortwick, Dennison K. Town, who had settled in Batavia in 1839 as its first physician, and Isaac G. Wilson. Its building went up in 1853-1854 in locally quarried limestone at a cost of $20,000, designed in Greek Revival style by Elijah Shumway Town, and still stands at 333 South Jefferson Street at Union Avenue.

Landmarks and Places in Batavia

• Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a Department of Energy high-energy physics laboratory where both the bottom quark and the top quark were first detected. Its Main Injector runs two miles in circumference, and until 2011 the site also held the 6.28 km Tevatron; the ring-shaped tunnels of both are visible from the air and by satellite.
• The Batavia Institute, also recorded as Bellevue Place Sanitarium, 333 South Jefferson Street at Union Avenue, built 1853-1854 in local limestone in Greek Revival style and a Registered Historic Place. It became the Fox Hill Home, a residential facility for unwed mothers, in the 1960s, ran until the 1970s, and was renamed Bellevue Place and converted into apartments in the mid 1980s. The building is not publicly accessible.
• Campana Factory, built 1936, a three-storey Streamline Moderne and Bauhaus building with a central tower rising 100 feet, alternating tile and mullion-free glass brick floors, horizontal turquoise tile bands, the company logo in gold leaf above the main entrance and a large red neon sign near the tower top. Its tower held a 50,000-gallon water tank for fire protection and air conditioning, and the east wing served as a visitors' gallery with the manufacturing floor visible through plate glass. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

The Batavia Economy

• Three industries define the record. Batavia was a major manufacturer of Conestoga wagons used in the country's westward expansion during the late 19th century. Windmills were the larger story: six American-style windmill manufacturing companies operated in the latter 19th century, and into the early 20th century most of the windmill-operated water pumps in use on American farms were made at one of three windmill manufacturers in the city. Many of the limestone factory buildings from that era remain in use as government and commercial offices and storefronts. Cosmetics came third, when the Campana Factory was built in 1936 for The Campana Company to make Italian Balm, described as the nation's best-selling hand lotion at the time; the company's prosperity through the Great Depression is credited to an aggressive radio advertising campaign, including commercials on The First Nighter Program, and to mailing millions of free samples. Aldi Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Aldi Sud, has its headquarters in Batavia. Rail history includes the Aurora Elgin and Chicago Railway, which built a power plant in southern Batavia and added a branch to the city in 1902, and the Chicago and North Western Aurora Branch and the Burlington Route West Chicago line, which served Batavia directly until 1943.

Community Life in Batavia

• Batavia Public Library District was founded in April 1881 as a township library, elected its first Board of Library Trustees in April 1882, converted to a district library in June 1975, and opened its current facility in January 2002; it serves most of Batavia Township in Kane County plus portions of Winfield Township in DuPage County and Geneva and Blackberry townships in Kane. Batavia Public School District No. 101 runs six K-5 elementary schools, one 6-8 middle school and Batavia High School, with small pockets of the city served by Geneva Community Unit School District 304 and West Aurora Public School District 129. Principal streets are Batavia Avenue (IL-31), Main Street (Route 10), Randall Road, Washington Street and River Street (IL-25). Published notable people, excluding anyone currently in office, include Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson, who grew up here; Chicago Browns second baseman Charlie Briggs; Bernard J. Cigrand, called the father of Flag Day, who lived in Batavia; 1960s singer-songwriter Jackie DeShannon, who attended Batavia High School; J. W. Eddy, a 19th-century politician, lawyer and railway engineer described as an acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln; physiologist and writer Winfield S. Hall; Basketball Hall of Fame forward and coach Dan Issel; politician and judge Samuel D. Lockwood; former U.S. Congressmen Meredith Mallory and Isaac Wilson; photographer Lyle Oberwise, born in Batavia in 1908 and died 1993; businessman and politician John F. Petit; folk singer and producer Birgit Ridderstedt; TNT and TBS sportscaster Craig Sager, born in Batavia; and former Illinois state legislator and Batavia firefighter Timothy Schmitz.

Local reference: en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org