Crystal Lake, Illinois

Crystal Lake is a city located in McHenry County, Illinois. It is named after Crystal Lake, a small lake southwest of the town. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 38,000. Crystal Lake has a small bit of fame for being the city where the tradition of giving gold coins to the Salvation Army anonymously began in the early 1980s. The city is also home to the Crystal Lake Community Band.

City Description

Crystal Lake is a large city and has distinct neighborhoods. As the largest city in McHenry County, Illinois, it contains three high schools, and has seven separate neighborhoods. Because many adults work out of town, notably in Chicago, social life in Crystal Lake is determined largely by who people's children go to school with. For this reason, two of the separate neighborhoods are technically in the neighboring city of Lake in the Hills, Illinois, but are both socially and socioeconomically more a part of Crystal Lake.

Related Topics:
City - Neighborhood - McHenry County, Illinois - High school - Chicago - Lake in the Hills, Illinois

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Crystal Lake's seven neighborhoods are largely divided by wealth and school district. Starting from the north of the city, the seven neighborhoods are easy to trace out. The first has no de facto name like the others, but is referred to as "by Prairie Ridge," referring to the nearby high school of the same name. Houses in this neighborhood are large and widely spaced. Next is downtown Crystal Lake, which rings Crystal Lake Central High School. Houses here range greatly in size and age, and it is the most diverse neighborhood in the city. Directly south of downtown Crystal Lake is the Coventry neighborhood, named for the major through street Coventry Lane. Students in the Coventry neighborhood attend either the Central High School of Crystal Lake or the Crystal Lake South High School. Coventry has seen a large increase recently in its Hispanic population.

Related Topics:
Neighborhood - City - Crystal Lake South High School - Hispanic

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To the southwest of downtown Crystal Lake is the sprawling Four Colonies neighborhood, which covers nearly 2.5 square miles. All students from Four Colonies attend the South high school. Because the neighborhood is so vast and uses so few different floor patterns in its construction, it inspires a saying among children who have never met "That they have already been in each others' houses before." Four Colonies is a solidly middle class neighborhood. South of Four Colonies is the Village neighborhood, which is named for its major thoroughfare, Village Road. An important feature of the village neighborhood is Indian Prairie Elementary School, which is built on a large and steep series of hills that is a favorite sledding location during the snowy months. The Village neighborhood is solidly upper middle class. Village residents attend the South high school.

Related Topics:
Square miles - High school - Neighborhood - Middle class - Elementary School - Snow - Upper middle class

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The last two neighborhoods in Crystal Lake are de facto neighborhoods of Crystal Lake due to social and school district ties. These two neighborhoods are technically in Lake in the Hills, Illinois. The Spring Hill subdivision bears a strong resemblance to the Village neighborhood, but the houses are slightly smaller. Spring Lake residents attend the South high school, as Spring Lake is across the street from the Village neighborhood. Spring lake mixes the middle class and the upper middle class. The final neighborhood of Crystal Lake is also in Lake in the Hills, Illinois. This is the exclusive Boulder Ridge neighborhood, and it is a gated community centering on the Boulder Ridge Country Club. The neighborhood opens its gates to the public most famously on Halloween, and the neighborhood is well-known by local children to give excellent candy. A discussion of Boulder Ridge at any time of the year will invariably turn to this. Boulder Ridge is a solidly upper class neighborhood. Lakewood, Illinois, near the geographic center of Crystal Lake and on the south side of the lake also has social links to Crystal Lake and is, in many cases, considered part of the town.

Related Topics:
Neighborhood - Lake in the Hills, Illinois - High school - Middle class - Upper middle class - Halloween - Upper class - Lakewood, Illinois

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