From a Milk Stop to a Designed Village
In 1864, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad began stopping at a small platform between Hinsdale and Westmont — a milk stop, where local farmers loaded their dairy onto trains bound for Chicago. The railroad didn't make the village; the railroad was the village. By 1873, the area had been formally platted using design principles from Frederick Law Olmsted's playbook — curving streets, residential blocks built around the depot, an intentional break from the standard prairie grid.
For 50 years, Clarendon Hills remained a tiny rural community — fewer than 900 residents at the time of incorporation in 1924. The vote to incorporate was defensive: residents wanted to prevent annexation by Hinsdale and preserve the village's distinct character. They succeeded. A century later, Clarendon Hills is still 1.8 square miles, still served by a single Metra BNSF station in the heart of downtown, still organized around the same Olmsted-influenced street pattern.
Today the population is 8,702. Median household income is $103,486; median family income is $175,801. The village has been ranked #1 Best Place to Live in Illinois by Niche, and Hinsdale Central High School (which Clarendon Hills students attend) was named one of the top 200 high schools in the country by Newsweek. The downtown has roughly 100 small businesses across about three blocks. There is exactly one stoplight in the entire village.
Lincoln Limo Inc serves Clarendon Hills because the village's transportation pattern is unusual: a 25-minute BNSF ride to Union Station handles the daily commute, but the airport runs, the late-night returns from downtown dinners, and the standing reservations to early-morning ORD departures all require black car service. The 2025 Escalade ESV Platinum Sport Executive turns the 35-minute O'Hare drive into the most relaxed part of the morning. By reservation. Surge pricing never used.