Fire Pits In Evanston

Evanston was founded by Methodist business leaders in 1857, named after John Evans, one of their leaders. Northwestern University, one of the world’s leading research universities, was founded in 1851 prior to city incorporation in 1863. Today, Evanston is ethnically diverse and socially liberal despite being a dry city until 1972. The city is heavily influenced by Chicago as well as the university itself, sharing a complex relationship with both.

Evanston was uninhabited until the 1830s and was mainly made up of wetlands and swampy forest. However, Potawatomi Native Americans used trails along higher ridges and had settlements along the trails that ran north-south. In 1850, the Ridgeville township was established, but still no municipality existed.

In 1863, Evanston was formally incorporated as a town, but declined to become a city in 1869. Following the Civil War, Evanston expanded folllowing the annexation of the village of South Evanston and became a city in 1892.

In 2021, Evanston became the first city in the USA to pay reparations to African-Americans who were victims of discriminatory housing practices. In the same year, Evanston also became one of the first cities to approve a guaranteed income to select residents.