Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Glenwood, IL

Glenwood began as the settlement of Hickory Bend and was incorporated as a village in 1903 in south Cook County, about 23 miles south of the Chicago Loop.

The Glenwood Shoreline, a sandy ridge left behind by glacial Lake Chicago as its waters receded after the last Ice Age, runs through the village, and in a geographic twist the shoreline is named after Glenwood, not the other way around.

Glenwood is almost completely surrounded by Cook County Forest Preserves, and about half of its roughly 3.26 square miles is parks or forest preserve land, giving it a wooded, secluded feel unusual for a Chicago suburb.

Glenwood is home to Glenwoodie Golf Club, an 18-hole course opened in 1926 and designed by noted Chicago-area architect Harry Collis; it began as the private Glenwood Country Club, founded in an era when Jewish golfers were excluded from many other clubs.

The Village of Glenwood bought Glenwoodie in 1995 and runs it as a public municipal course; the club celebrates its centennial in 2026 and gained a new 14,000-square-foot clubhouse in 2011.

Glenwood has hosted a remarkable school since 1889: the Glenwood School for Boys, now the Glenwood School for Boys and Girls, was founded in 1887 by Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln, and humane society agent Oscar Dudley to care for neglected boys, and moved to Glenwood two years later on a farm donated by board member Milton George.

The 2020 census counted 8,662 people in Glenwood, down from 8,969 in 2010, and Census Bureau survey estimates count about 3,180 households.

Glenwood is known for its multigenerational families, with many residents staying for decades in its affordable single-family homes along tree-lined streets.

Interstate 394 runs just east of Glenwood and Illinois Route 1 (Halsted Street) to the west, tying the quiet, forest-ringed village into Chicago's south suburban highway network.