Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Roodhouse, IL

Roodhouse is a city in northern Greene County, Illinois, on U.S. Route 67, about 13 miles north of Carrollton, the county seat.

Roodhouse was founded in the 1850s by John Roodhouse and was originally known as 'The Crossroads' for its position where two major roads crossed, before being renamed for its founder.

Roodhouse's future was secured in 1860, when local promoter John Rawlins convinced the Chicago and Alton Railway to open a station there by promising to raise local funds for the depot and warehouse.

Roodhouse became a major railroad junction after the railway built its Louisiana branch from the city in 1871, with a roundhouse, locomotive repair shops and the headquarters of the railroad's Missouri division located there.

Roodhouse was legally incorporated as a city in 1880, at the height of its railroad boom.

Roodhouse peaked at 2,928 residents in the 1920 census, when roughly two-thirds of the town depended on the railroad for a living.

Passenger railroad service to Roodhouse ended in the 1950s, triggering an economic downturn that lasted for decades, and the city's population fell to 1,578 by the 2020 census.

The Hotel Roodhouse, the city's only surviving hotel from its railroad era, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Roodhouse covers just over one square mile — about 1.13 square miles — nearly all of it shaped by the rail lines that built the town.