24/7 Trauma & Biohazard Cleanup Near Berger Dolton, IL

Dolton is a village in Cook County, Illinois, sitting on the Little Calumet River just south of Chicago's far southeast border, with a population of 21,426 at the 2020 census.

Dolton traces its settlement to the 1830s, got its post office in 1854, and was incorporated as a village in 1893, taking its name from the Dolton family of early settlers.

Dolton has about 7,820 households in recent Census Bureau estimates, and roughly 73 percent of its housing is owner-occupied.

Dolton boomed after World War II, mushrooming from 5,338 residents in 1950 to 18,746 in 1960 and peaking at 25,937 in 1970.

Dolton is the childhood hometown of Pope Leo XIV — born Robert Francis Prevost, he grew up in a brick house at 212 East 141st Place that his parents, Louis and Mildred, bought new in 1949 with a $42-a-month mortgage.

Young Robert Prevost walked a few blocks each day to St. Mary of the Assumption school just over the Chicago line, long before becoming the first American-born pope on May 8, 2025.

In July 2025, the Dolton Village Board voted to buy the pope's childhood home and preserve it as a historic site, drawing pilgrims and visitors to the village.

Dolton changed dramatically in the late twentieth century: census figures show it went from just 42 Black residents in 1970 to a community that is today about 91 percent African American.

Dolton was also a childhood home of Dennis DeYoung, who was living there with his parents when he began playing rock music with the friends who would form the band Styx.

The village covers about 4.7 square miles and was once home to a large sauerkraut factory and factories canning beets and lima beans from the surrounding farmland.