Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Palos Heights, IL

Palos Heights, formerly called Harlem Heights, was incorporated on April 16, 1959, after the completion of Southwest Highway in 1928 and a 1935 land purchase by the Robert Bartlett Building Corporation set off suburban development on former farmland.

The last working farmland in Palos Heights was sold to subdividers in 1965, completing the city's transformation from farms to a bedroom community in barely a generation.

Trinity Christian College was founded in Palos Heights in 1959, the same year the city incorporated; it began as a two-year college on the former Navajo Hills Golf Course with just 37 students and five faculty members, and awarded its first bachelor's degrees in 1971.

Palos Community Hospital, opened in 1972, grew into one of the major medical centers of Chicago's southwest suburbs and one of the city's largest employers.

City leaders call Lake Katherine Nature Center and Botanic Gardens, established in 1988 on a former quarry lake site, the 'gem' of Palos Heights, with trails, fishing and kayaking in the middle of the suburbs.

The 2020 census counted 12,068 residents in Palos Heights, and Census Bureau survey estimates count about 4,800 households; roughly 44 percent of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher.

Palos Heights is home to Alan B. Shepard High School, named for the first American in space, whose Astros serve students from Palos Heights and nearby communities.

Palos Heights borders the vast Palos Forest Preserves, one of the largest stretches of protected woodland in Cook County, putting thousands of acres of trails at residents' doorsteps.

The city sits in Palos Township in southwest Cook County, about 25 miles from downtown Chicago, and is known for quiet residential streets rather than industry.

Trinity Christian College's 47-acre campus draws students from dozens of Christian denominations, and its Ozinga Chapel seats 1,200 people for concerts and services.