Biohazard Cleanup Near Riverview Schiller Park, IL

Schiller Park is a village in Leyden Township, Cook County, Illinois, sitting just across Interstate 294 from O'Hare International Airport, with a population of 11,709 at the 2020 census.

Most of present-day Schiller Park lies within the 1,280 acres deeded to Potawatomi chief Alexander Robinson, also known as Che Che Pin Qua, under the 1829 Treaty of Prairie du Chien in recognition of his help during the Fort Dearborn era.

The settlement was first known as Kolze, after William Kolze, who bought 105 acres in 1881 and built the White House inn for travelers and picnickers along the Des Plaines River.

The Schiller name came from the Schiller Liedertafel, a German singing society whose outings to the river groves made the area known as Schiller Woods.

Schiller Park was incorporated on March 21, 1914, under the name Kolze, and the village was renamed Schiller Park in 1926.

In 1932, Schiller Park's Julia Kolze, the founder's daughter-in-law, became mayor - the first woman mayor in the history of Illinois.

Schiller Park counted 4,505 households at the 2020 census, all packed into just 2.77 square miles of land.

Schiller Park's population peaked at 12,712 in 1970, during the O'Hare-area building boom, and has stayed just under 12,000 since.

Schiller Park has its own Metra station on the North Central Service line, with trains running east to Chicago Union Station and north to Antioch.

Schiller Park became a home rule community in 1990, and its sister city is Capurso, Italy, a partnership established in 1994.