Town History
The village of Grand Ridge is located in the north central part of the state, in some of the best farmland in the country. It is in the rural south central part of LaSalle County between the towns of Ottawa (to the north) and Streator (to the south) on Illinois Route 23. The early history shows that the area was an unincorporated settlement called “Livonia”. It was named after the wife of an early settler, Joseph Boyd, when he sold an acre of land to the Presbyterians for $25.00. This name lasted from 1860 – 1871. When the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad put a spur through the town, building a station in 1871, their engineers found a point on a nearby farm to be the highest elevation between Streator and Aurora. Railroad officials changed the name to “Grand Ridge” and the name stayed with the village when it became incorporated in 1891.
The ethnic background of the community was made up of immigrants from Europe during the late 1800’s. Ethnic heritage reflects this with approximately 40% German, 15% English, 12% Irish, 7% Slovak, 4% French, and 4% Hispanic. The remaining 18% is made of smaller percentages of other nationalities. Today’s race reflects a large white population of 97.7% and Hispanic population of 2.7%. The town today is classified as a rural town based on its population of about 519 people (2009 Census).
While there are no major manufacturing facilities in the community, it does provide some services. Local businesses include the bank, gas station, grain elevator, fertilizer company, funeral home, seed companies, cabling company, and insurance companies. The residents look to the surrounding area for employment, dining, entertainment, and shopping. It is also located near large city attractions and opportunities in Chicago, Rockford, Quad Cities, Peoria, and Bloomington (all of these are between one to two hours travel time). Since residents look to these areas for most of these services, Grand Ridge would be considered a “bedroom community”.
The culture of Grand Ridge is typical of rural America. It is based on values of hard work and parents wanting the best for their children. The community has demonstrated a desire to advance and improve education on all levels by having an active Parent Teacher Organization, Sports Booster Club and community members committed to excellence for their school. The community has taken an active and viable role in the technology development of our school by forming the Grand Ridge Education Alliance Team (GREAT Team). “GREAT” has a good representation of community members from a variety of stakeholder groups. Grand Ridge has a low crime rate, with no gangs or drug traffic. Because of this, people feel safe in this community to raise their children.
The area surrounding Grand Ridge provides many job opportunities. These include manufacturing industries, Walter Seed and Mycogen agricultural industries, farming, Excelon Power plant, Quantum Chemical Corporation, Ottawa Community Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital of Streator, and GE Plastics. Based on the 2000 censuses, the educational attainment of people of 25 who have completed high school is 86.9% and completing a four-year college is 12.8%. Median average household income (1999) is $45,000 and median family income is $52,000. Per capita income is $18,287. Families below poverty level are 4 and the individuals below are 32. The average value of the houses in the community is $48,700. The number of people owning their home is 83.6%, while 16.4% rent and only 5.2% are vacant dwellings. In the Village of Grand Ridge there are approximately 212 homes with 201 being occupied by residents (data based on 2000 Census Data).