Local coverage
Project conversations across Champaign County.
Coverage depends on independent provider availability. Each page below explains useful housing and site context for that community.
Urbana
Urbana was platted in 1833 as the new Champaign County seat, but a fire on October 9, 1871 -- the day after Chicago and Peshtigo, Wisconsin burned -- destroyed much of the young city.
Local planning notes →Savoy
Savoy didn't incorporate until April 10, 1956, when residents organized specifically to fund their own fire service, and it stayed a village of a few hundred people for years afterward.
Local planning notes →Mahomet
Mahomet traces to 1832, when Daniel T.
Local planning notes →Rantoul
Rantoul's defining chapter began May 21, 1917, when Chanute Field was established as one of 32 Air Service training camps built after the U.S.
Local planning notes →St. Joseph
St.
Local planning notes →Tolono
Tolono exists because two railroads crossed here: the Illinois Central laid track south from Champaign in the 1850s, and the east-west Great Western Railway intersected it in 1856, creating a junction town that incorporated in 1865.
Local planning notes →Monticello
Monticello became the seat of Piatt County when the county was formed in 1841, and decades later a run of lavish homes along State Street earned the strip the nickname 'Millionaires Row,' now a historic district.
Local planning notes →Villa Grove
Villa Grove was founded June 23, 1887 as Chicago & Eastern Illinois crews laid track toward Tuscola, and it was rebuilt a second time after 1902, when the Frisco railroad bought the line and platted an entirely new townsite with repair shops, chosen as a division point roughly halfway between Chicago and St.
Local planning notes →