| Mount Carroll, Illinois | |
| Settlement Type: | City |
| Motto: | Where we take the time to care |
| Coordinates: | 42.0956°N -89.9769°W |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Name1: | Illinois |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Carroll |
| Subdivision Type3: | Township |
| Established Title: | Founded |
| Named For: | Charles Carroll of Carrollton |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Carl Bates |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Area Footnotes: | [1] |
| Area Total Km2: | 5.19 |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 2 |
| Area Land Km2: | 5.19 |
| Area Land Sq Mi: | 2 |
| Area Water Km2: | 0 |
| Area Water Sq Mi: | 0 |
| Elevation Footnotes: | [2] |
| Elevation Ft: | 810 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Total: | 1479 |
| Population Density Km2: | 285.04 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | 738.39 |
| Timezone1: | CST |
| Utc Offset1: | -6 |
| Timezone1 Dst: | CDT |
| Utc Offset1 Dst: | -5 |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP Code(s) |
| Postal Code: | 61053 |
| Area Code: | 815 |
| Blank Name: | FIPS code |
| Blank Info: | 17-50881 |
| Blank2 Name Sec2: | Wikimedia Commons |
| Blank2 Info Sec2: | Mount Carroll, Illinois |
Mount Carroll is a city in and the county seat of Carroll County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,479 at the 2020 census.
Mount Carroll began life as a mill town around 1841. In 1843, a referendum moved the county seat from nearby Savanna to Mount Carroll. The town was incorporated in 1855 and became a city in 1867; the first mayor was Nathaniel Halderman, a prominent local businessman and co-founder of the mill.[3]
Shimer College was established in Mt. Carroll in 1853, but mounting debts forced a move to Waukegan in 1979 and subsequently to Chicago in 2006. The campus now is home to several organizations, most notably the Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies.
Mount Carroll is located slightly northwest of the center of Carroll County at 42.0956°N -89.9769°W (42.095473, -89.977042).[4] U.S. Route 52 passes through the southern part of the city, leading east 7miles to Lanark and west to Savanna on the Mississippi River.
According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Mount Carroll has a total area of 2sqmi, all land.[5]
Mt. Carroll has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification: Dfa), with cold winters, hot summers, and four seasons.[6] Annual precipitation is about 40 inches.
Due to its elevation and northwesterly location, Mount Carroll is subject to unusually cold winter weather. From 1930 to 1999, Mount Carroll held the record for the lowest temperature ever recorded in Illinois,, recorded on January 22, 1930.[7] [8] The record was beaten by Congerville in 1999, by one degree Fahrenheit. 20 years later, on January 31, 2019 during an extreme cold snap, Mount Carroll regained the title of coldest city in Illinois when a new Illinois state record low temperature of -38F was officially recorded.[9]
As of the 2020 census[10] there were 1,479 people, 667 households, and 403 families residing in the city. The population density was 738.39PD/sqmi. There were 812 housing units at an average density of 405.39/sqmi. The racial makeup of the city was 95.2% White, 0.34% African American, 0.2% Asian, 0.41% from other races, and 3.85% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.84% of the population.
There were 667 households, out of which 25.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.43% were married couples living together, 12.14% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.58% were non-families. 36.13% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.09% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 2.12.
The city's age distribution consisted of 19.6% under the age of 18, 9.6% from 18 to 24, 19.3% from 25 to 44, 29.9% from 45 to 64, and 21.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 46.5 years. For every 100 females, there were 77.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.2 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $54,821, and the median income for a family was $62,788. Males had a median income of $42,396 versus $30,387 for females. The per capita income for the city was $27,966. About 6% of families and 10.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.7% of those under age 18 and 5.5% of those age 65 or over.
Mount Carroll enjoys a remarkable concentration of historically and architecturally significant structures. The bulk of the town's downtown and older residential area are included in the Mount Carroll Historic District, which encompasses and was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Mount Carroll is also home to the Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies, located on the historic former Shimer College campus near the south edge of town.
The Timber Lake Playhouse, the oldest semiprofessional summer stock theater company in Illinois, is located 4miles southeast of Mount Carroll.The Mount Carroll post office contains an oil on canvas mural, Rural Scene - Wakarusa Valley, painted by Irene Bianucci in 1941. Federally commissioned murals were produced from 1934 to 1943 in the United States through the Section of Painting and Sculpture, later called the Section of Fine Arts, of the Treasury Department.[11]
