Aurora is a city in northeastern Illinois, United States, located along the Fox River. The population was 180,542 at the 2020 census. It is the second-most populous city in Illinois, after Chicago, and the 144th-most populous city in the US. Aurora is the most populous city in Illinois that is not a county seat.
Founded within Kane County, Aurora's city limits have expanded into DuPage, Kendall, and Will counties. Once a mid-sized manufacturing city, Aurora has grown since the 1960s into a large city within the Chicago metropolitan area. In 1908, Aurora adopted the nickname "City of Lights", because in 1881 it was one of the first cities in the United States to implement an all-electric street lighting system.
Aurora's historic downtown is centered on Stolp Island. The city is divided into three regions, the West Side, East Side, and Far East Side/Fox Valley. The Aurora area has architecture by Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Bruce Goff and George Grant Elmslie. Aurora is also home to over 50 Sears Catalog Homes and seven Lustron all-steel homes. The Hollywood Casino Aurora, a dockside gaming facility with and 1,200 gaming positions, is located along the river in downtown Aurora.
History
thumb|View of Stolp Island historic buildings from Downer Place with architectural details, such as these [[terracotta tiles.]]
Before European settlers arrived, there was a Native American village in what is today downtown Aurora, on the banks of the Fox River. In 1834, following the Black Hawk War, the McCarty brothers settled on both sides of the river, but subsequently sold their land on the west side to the Lake brothers, who opened a mill. The McCartys lived on and operated a mill on the east side. Aurora was established with the building of a post office in 1837.
Aurora began as two villages: East Aurora, incorporated in 1845 on the east side of the river, and West Aurora, formally organized on the west side of the river in 1854.
In 1857, the two towns joined, incorporating as the city of Aurora. Representatives could not agree which side of the river should house the public buildings, so most of them were built on or around Stolp Island in the middle of the river.
As the city grew, it attracted numerous factories and jobs. In 1849, after failing to attract the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad building west from Chicago, the Aurora Branch Railroad was chartered to build a connection from Aurora to the G&CU at a place called Turner Junction, now West Chicago. Additional lines were built, including a direct line to Chicago, and in 1855 the company was reorganized into the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. The CB&Q located its roundhouse and locomotive shop in Aurora, becoming the town's largest employer until the 1960s. Restructuring in the railroad industry resulted in a loss of jobs as passenger traffic dropped and the number of railroads decreased. The Burlington Railroad ran regularly scheduled passenger trains to Chicago. Other railroads built lines to Aurora, including the Chicago & Northwestern Railway to Geneva, the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway to Joliet, Chicago, Milwaukee & Gary to Rockford, and the interurbans Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad, Aurora, Elgin and Fox River Electric Company, Chicago, Aurora and DeKalb Railroad, and Aurora, Plainfield and Joliet Railroad. With the exception of the EJ&E main line on the east side of the city and the former Burlington lines, all lines have been abandoned.
The heavy industries on the East side provided employment for generations of European immigrants, who came from Ireland, Great Britain, Scandinavia, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Romania and Italy. Aurora became the economic center of the Fox Valley region. The combination of these three factors—a highly industrialized town, a sizable river that divided it, and the Burlington railroad's shops—accounted for much of the dynamics of Aurora's political, economic, and social history. The city openly supported abolitionism before the American Civil War. Mexican migrants began arriving after the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Socially, the town was progressive in its attitude toward education, religion, welfare, and women. The first free public school district in Illinois was established in 1851 here and the city established a high school for girls in 1855.
During this period in the city's history, Aurora was also hit with one of the strongest earthquakes ever to strike Illinois, a M 5.1, on May 26, 1909
Later, the city developed as a manufacturing powerhouse which lasted until the early 1970s, when the railroad shops closed. Many other factories and industrial areas relocated or went out of business. By 1980, there were few industrial areas operating in the city, and unemployment soared to 16%. Brian Howard, an employee of Harris Corporation, was charged in the incident.
On February 15, 2019, police responded to an active shooter situation in west Aurora to find that a former employee at the Henry Pratt Company had opened fire on fellow employees after being terminated from the company. Six people died, including the perpetrator who was shot and killed by responding police officers. Six others were injured, including five police officers. It was the first major shooting in the town's history.
Geography
thumb|The Phillips Park 'Sunken Garden'
Aurora is at (41.7637855, −88.2901352).
While the city has traditionally been regarded as being in Kane County, Aurora also includes parts of DuPage, Kendall and Will counties. Aurora is one of only three cities in Illinois that span four counties, the others being Barrington Hills and Centralia.)
Subdivisions
Politically, the city is divided into 10 wards. Large portions of Aurora can be described as being within three regions:
- The West Side, which is west of the Fox River.
- The East Side, which spans the region east of the Fox River, stopping at the DuPage County line.
- The Far East Side, a portion of Aurora east of the DuPage County line
These three regions are partly depicted in police boundaries and school districts.
Climate
Aurora is categorized as a hot-summer humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa). The annual precipitation for Aurora is about 40 inches. The record high for Aurora is , on July 14, 1936. The record low is , on January 16, 2009. The average high temperature for Aurora in July is , the average January low is .
On July 17–18, 1996, a major flood struck Aurora, with of rain in a 24-hour period, which is an Illinois state record. Flooding occurred in almost every low-lying area citywide, as well as localized river inundation with neighborhoods bordering the Fox River.
In 1990, the supercell thunderstorm that produced the deadly Plainfield Tornado passed over the city, dropping golf ball-sized hail and causing wind damage. Less than ten minutes after passing through Aurora, the storm produced an F5 tornado, which touched down in nearby Oswego, less than 5 miles from downtown. The tornado then traveled through Plainfield and Joliet, killing 29 people.