Village History

The Barrington area encompasses approximately 95 square miles of unique glacial landscape and is located within the Fox River ecosystem. North Barrington is approximately 35 miles northwest of Chicago.

The first settlers arrived in the 1830s and in 1854 the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad built its first station in the Village of Barrington. Subsequent generations have been attracted to the area by its appealing natural resources, and its accessibility to the metropolitan area, which provides a unique opportunity for countryside living with a proximity to urban development.

The Barrington Area Historical Society has documented the first homes in North Barrington at 156 Kimberly (known as the Kimberly House c. 1857), 150 Old Barrington Road (c. 1860) and the Kuhlman House at 615 Miller (c. 1875). The Kimberly House has a particularly colorful history because it is claimed to have been visited on several occasions by President Theodore Roosevelt, cousin of the Kimberlys daughter-in-law.

As time passed, residents preferred the natural setting of North Barrington and made it their home. The original subdivision of the Honey Lake area occurred in 1926; it was called Biltmore Country Estates and included the Biltmore Country Club.

In 1959, area residents voted to form the unincorporated area into the Village of North Barrington so citizens could more directly influence their environment.

The large Wynstone residential golf course estate subdivision and Jack Nicklaus Golf Course began development in the late 1980s. In 1992 the current Village Hall was constructed. Prior to that time, the Village Office was located in a home on Indian Trail Road, and before that in a house on the Good Shepherd Hospital Grounds.

In celebration of the Village's 50th anniversary in October of 2009, information was compiled on the area's early history. The document can be found here.