Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Oak Lawn, IL

Oak Lawn is a village in Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago's southwest side, and with 58,362 residents at the 2020 census it is the 22nd-most populous municipality in Illinois.

Oak Lawn was first settled in 1835, when James B. Campbell purchased the land between Cicero Avenue and Central Avenue from 95th Street to 103rd Street; the area's earliest known name was Black Oak Grove.

The village incorporated in 1909 and covers about 8.6 square miles in Worth Township.

After World War II, returning veterans buying homes with G.I. Bill loans drove a huge population boom, and Oak Lawn's population peaked at about 63,500 in the mid-1970s.

On April 21, 1967, an F4 tornado tore through Oak Lawn in one of the worst tornado strikes on an urban area in U.S. history, killing 33 people, injuring about 500 and damaging or destroying roughly 900 buildings.

The 1967 tornado cut Oak Lawn Community High School in half as it crossed the village before destroying the Oak Lawn Roller Rink and moving on toward Chicago.

Oak Lawn is a major medical center for the southwest suburbs, home to Advocate Christ Medical Center, a teaching hospital of more than 700 beds that operates one of Illinois' largest Level I trauma centers and is the village's largest employer.

Census Bureau figures count about 21,600 households in Oak Lawn, and more than 82% of its homes are owner-occupied.

The village has two public high schools: Oak Lawn Community High School, home of the Spartans, and Harold L. Richards High School.

Oak Lawn Round-Up Days, first held in 1949, became the village's signature annual festival during its postwar growth years.