A lakefront village about 14 miles north of the Chicago Loop, on Chicago’s North Shore.
01 — At a Glance
Wilmette, Illinois, is a village on Lake Michigan about 14 miles north of the Chicago Loop. The 2020 census counted 28,170 residents. The 2010 census put the land area at 5.4 square miles. The ZIP code is 60091. The village incorporated in 1872 and is named for Archange and Antoine Ouilmette.
02 — History
Wilmette carries the name of Archange Ouilmette, whose family held this lakefront by treaty in 1829. The village later absorbed its German farming neighbor, Gross Point, built a park out of canal clay and watched the Baháʼí House of Worship rise over forty years.
1829
The Treaty of Prairie du Chien granted Archange Ouilmette and her children 1,280 acres, bounded by today’s 15th Street, Elmwood Avenue and Central Street in Evanston. The family’s log cabin stood near today’s Michigan Shores Club until 1838, when they moved west to the Council Bluffs area. The children sold most of the land in the 1840s, though Joseph Ouilmette kept his share until 1871.
Source: Wilmette History Museum
1872
The Chicago and North Western stopped at Green Bay Road and Wilmette Avenue, and commuter service began around 1869. Residents incorporated in 1872, meeting at Andrew Sherman’s house, and John G. Westerfield became the first president. Along the way the spelling changed from Ouilmette to Wilmette.
Source: Wilmette History Museum · Wikipedia
1874
West of Ridge Road, German farmers from the Trier area had formed their own community, and St. Joseph Church dates to 1843. Gross Point incorporated in 1874 with about 300 people. Its 1896 Village Hall at 609 Ridge Road now houses the Wilmette History Museum.
Source: Wilmette History Museum
1908–1910
The Sanitary District dug the North Shore Channel, and the clay from the dig became landfill for Washington Park, later renamed Gillson Park. The Park Board was established in 1908. Around the same time, Sheridan Road replaced the old Green Bay Trail as the lakeshore route.
Source: Wilmette History Museum
1924–1926
Township prohibition in 1909 and then the 18th Amendment cut into the saloon trade that had sustained Gross Point. Its residents voted to dissolve the village in April 1919, and Wilmette annexed the land in two stages, in 1924 and 1926. Indian Hill Estates, 170 acres planned by Philip Maher, followed.
Source: Wilmette History Museum
1953
The Baháʼí House of Worship at 100 Linden Ave. was completed in 1953, forty years after construction began. It’s one of only eight continental Baháʼí Houses of Worship in the world, and visitors are welcome.
Source: Wilmette History Museum · Baháʼís of the United States
Antoine Ouilmette, a French-Canadian fur trader, was among Chicago’s first residents in 1790. His wife, Archange Chevalier Ouilmette, was Potawatomi, and the 1829 Treaty of Prairie du Chien granted her and her children 1,280 acres along the lake. The family lived in a log cabin near today’s Michigan Shores Club until 1838, and the children sold most of the land in the 1840s.
Commuter trains began stopping at Green Bay Road and Wilmette Avenue around 1869, and Wilmette incorporated on September 19, 1872, with John G. Westerfield as its first president. To the west, immigrants from the Trier area of Germany built Gross Point around St. Joseph Church, founded in 1843. The village incorporated in 1874 and grew from 327 residents in 1880 to 1,008 in 1910. The two villages grew side by side until Gross Point dissolved in 1919 and joined Wilmette in 1924 and 1926.
Clay from the North Shore Channel, dug from 1908 to 1910, became the landfill for Washington Park, later Gillson Park, and the Park Board took shape in 1908 to run it. Sheridan Road, opened in 1900, became the lakeshore route. The elevated line reached Fourth Street and Linden Avenue in 1912, with a Prairie-style station that opened in 1913. Today the channel meets the lake at Wilmette Harbor.
Spanish Court, built in the late 1920s by Edwin Clark, was remodeled in 1967 into Plaza del Lago. During the Depression, WPA crews relaid the brick streets, and markers still sit in the paving at several intersections. They also built the open-air amphitheater in Gillson Park later named the Wallace Bowl. The unincorporated pocket known as No Man’s Land joined the village in 1942.
Wilmette counted 17,226 residents in 1940 and 18,162 in 1950. The Edens Expressway opened in 1951 and Edens Plaza in 1956, and the North Shore Line interurban made its last runs in 1955. By 1970 the population had reached 32,134, and the village marked its centennial in 1972.
Source: Wilmette History Museum · Wikipedia
03 — Shopping & Dining
Wilmette shops in a few walkable pockets: downtown along Central and Wilmette avenues near the Metra station, the Fourth and Linden blocks by the Purple Line, and Plaza del Lago on Sheridan Road.
Steakhouse
A neighborhood steakhouse from Glenn Keefer and Ryan O’Donnell, with seafood and a burger worth ordering.
1146 Wilmette Ave., Wilmette, IL 60091
Visit WebsiteCafé & market
Nancy Brussat Barocci opened Convito Italiano in 1980 and later moved it to Plaza del Lago. The menu keeps classics from her Bêtise bistro.
1515 Sheridan Rd., Wilmette, IL 60091
Visit WebsiteNeapolitan pizzeria
Neapolitan-style pizza with a wine list that covers every region of Italy.
1126 Central Ave., Wilmette, IL 60091
Visit WebsiteBakery & café
Jordana and Garrett’s downtown café for macarons, cakes, breakfast and lunch, with cocktails too.
1115 Central Ave., Wilmette, IL 60091
Visit WebsiteSandwich shop & bakery
A sandwich shop with its own bakery and creamery, from Ballyhoo Hospitality.
1137 Greenleaf Ave., Wilmette, IL 60091
Visit WebsiteRamen shop
Japanese ramen a block from the downtown Metra station.
1162 Wilmette Ave., Wilmette, IL 60091
Visit WebsiteOpen-air shopping center
Built in the 1920s and billed as the second-oldest outdoor shopping center in the country. Tenants include Hermès, Oscar de la Renta, Thom Browne, Jenni Kayne and Veronica Beard.
1515 Sheridan Rd., Wilmette, IL 60091
Visit WebsiteChildren’s bookshop
A children’s bookshop run by Wilmette resident Jenna Rose.
1114 Central Ave., Wilmette, IL 60091
Visit WebsiteWomen’s boutique
Julie Cohen’s women’s boutique, in business since 1988 and now on Central Avenue.
1105 Central Ave., Wilmette, IL 60091
Visit WebsiteSaturdays, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., April through October
A Saturday market set up just east of the Wilmette Metra station, run by Bensidoun USA. The 2026 season runs April 18 through October 31.
Wilmette Metra parking lot, Green Bay Rd., Wilmette, IL 60091
Visit Website04 — Education
Most Wilmette homes attend Wilmette Public Schools District 39 through eighth grade and then New Trier High School. Part of the village is in Avoca District 37, and two Catholic high schools sit within the village.
Boundaries follow the address. Confirm school assignment for each address with the district before you buy.
Search HomesPublic · K–8
Four elementary schools feed one middle school and one junior high.
Public · 9–12
New Trier Township High School District 203 starts freshmen at its Northfield campus and moves grades 10–12 to the Winnetka campus.
Public · K–8
Avoca’s district office is at 2921 Illinois Rd. in Wilmette, and its middle school is in the village.
Catholic · PreK–8
A Catholic school on two Wilmette campuses.
Catholic · 9–12
A Jesuit college-preparatory high school on Laramie Avenue.
Catholic · 9–12
A Catholic high school for girls on Locust Road.
05 — Lifestyle
The Wilmette Park District oversees more than 300 acres, from Gillson Park to the Community Playfield, Mallinckrodt and Centennial parks. Beyond Gillson, the district lists beaches at Langdon Park and the Elmwood Dunes Preserve, and the Green Bay Trail and North Shore Channel Trail both pass through town.
Sixty acres on the lake with swimming beaches, a dog beach, kayak, paddleboard and sailboat rentals, the Wallace Bowl and the Lakeview Center.
Gillson ParkPools, ice rinks and tennis in one complex. The pools opened in 1972 and the ice followed in 1975.
Visit WebsiteA public par-70 course with only two par 5s, plus a driving range and the Lawn Grill and Bar, open year-round.
Golf ClubTwo days of art downtown each August. The 2026 fair ran August 1–2.
Community EventsA full day and evening downtown, noon to 10 p.m. It was held August 29 in 2026.
Community EventsThe parade steps off at Lake and Ridge and heads east toward Village Hall, followed by a Memorial Day ceremony.
Community EventsHouse leagues by grade up to Pony for seventh and eighth graders, plus travel teams, fall ball and Buddy Baseball.
Visit WebsiteLittle Blackhawks learn-to-play, mite house and travel hockey, and youth travel teams.
Visit WebsiteYear-round lacrosse through eighth grade across the New Trier district, coached by New Trier coaches and former players.
Visit WebsiteFree Park District concerts through the summer, several of them at the Wallace Bowl in Gillson Park.
Concert SeriesLocal history exhibits in the 1896 Gross Point Village Hall at 609 Ridge Rd.
Visit WebsiteThe continental House of Worship for North America, at 100 Linden Ave. A Welcome Center sits just west of the temple.
Plan a VisitUnion Pacific North Line trains stop at 722 Green Bay Rd., between Central and Lake avenues. Pace 213, 421 and 422 connect here.
Station DetailsLinden Avenue is the north end of the Purple Line, a few blocks from the Baháʼí House of Worship.
Station DetailsRoute 422 runs from the Linden CTA station through Wilmette and Glenview to Northbrook Court, and Route 423 links Linden with Winnetka, Northfield and Glenview.
Route 42206 — The 60-Second Overview
Four chapters, about fifteen seconds each, on how Wilmette began, what the village is today, where ZIP 60091 sits, and what to confirm on a specific home.
0:15
Wilmette incorporated in 1872 and takes its name from the Ouilmettes. Sheridan Road opened through the village in 1900.
0:30
The village sits on Lake Michigan, about 14 miles north of the Chicago Loop. Gillson Park and the beaches at Langdon and Elmwood Dunes face the lake, beside the North Shore Channel and Wilmette Harbor. The Baháʼí House of Worship stands here, and the CTA Purple Line stops at Linden.
0:45
ZIP 60091 is the village code, and the Loop is about 14 miles south. A Metra station is on Green Bay Road, and Plaza del Lago is part of the village record.
1:00
District 39 is the school district named for the village, with Avoca and Marie Murphy also named, and New Trier High School after that. Loyola Academy and Regina Dominican are named as well. A Blue Fence Wilmette Private Client agent confirms the items for a specific home.
Private Client Representation