Mundelein is a village in Lake County, Illinois, United States and a northern suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 31,560, making this the fourth largest town in Lake County. The village straddles Libertyville Township and Fremont Township, and borders Grayslake, Ivanhoe, Diamond Lake, and Libertyville. The village lies 33 miles northwest of the Chicago Loop.
Mundelein was first settled by European settlers in 1835, and was incorporated in 1909 after a spur line connected the village to the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad. The University of Saint Mary of the Lake opened in 1921, and in June 1926 the village hosted the closing events of the 28th International Eucharistic Congress, bringing hundreds of thousands of people to the village. Its name was changed four times over its history, including two after incorporation.
History
left|thumb|upright|Photograph of John Holcomb, the former namesake of Mundelein
Pre-incorporation
Native Americans of the area, such as the Potawatomi people, were trading with French trappers as early as 1650. The Potwatomi had settled on a camp on the south end of Diamond Lake. Natives lost possession of land in the area in 1836 and were forced west of the Mississippi River. Peter Shaddle was the first European settler in 1835, and built a log cabin, finally acquired by University of Saint Mary of the Lake. Shaddle sold his claim to settlers from New York.
Later settlers from England named the town "Mechanics Grove", due to the settler's occupations of millwrights, wheelwrights and carpenters. The town's first school opened in 1837 and a church the following year. In 1885, he donated 20 acres of land to the Wisconsin Central Railroad. The same year, the town was renamed after American businessman William Rockefeller Jr., who was a major stockholder in the Wisconsin Central Railroad. Rockefeller was incorporated on February 1, 1909, in a referendum in anticipation of an economic boom after the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad built a spur line terminating at Rockefeller in 1904. Residents from nearby Diamond Lake, Illinois were included in the vote in order to meet the minimum resident requirements, although they later withdrew from the village.
thumb|Photograph of Sheldon School
Post-incorporation
1909 to 1925
The village was renamed from Rockefeller to "Area" in July 1909. The name was from a sales school in the village called Sheldon School, which had the motto of "Ability, Reliability, Endurance, and Action". At its peak, the school had over 10,000 students.
On December 10, 1924, the Village Board held a special meeting with representatives from the Soo Line Railroad, who requested that the board change the village's name to Mundelein for the cardinal. The Illinois Secretary of State approved in April 1925, and the board passed an ordinance changing the village name to Mundelein. A temporary terminal was built at the future site of Carmel High School to accommodate the events. It existed until the Great Depression. 18,000 cars went through Mundelein on that day, and thousands of National Guard troops were sent to control traffic for the event. In total, 820 trains went through the Mundelein station from dawn to midnight on that day.
Two events were scheduled for the Seminary, a Solemn Pontifical Mass at 10:00 am, and a Procession at 2:00 pm. During the procession, a violent thunderstorm passed the seminary, leaving people at the procession "tired and soaked to the skin". The seminary was left with litter and damaged lawns after the event.
By the 1970s, the community was largely residential with a little light industrial development. Ranches and tri-level houses were built in the 1950s and 1960s in the center of town, with larger, two-story houses in the village's periphery built from the 1970s.
A major employer of the village, Ball Glass, closed in the early 1980s. The village saw economic and industrial growth during the 1990s, gaining over 10,000 residents between the 1980 and 1990 United States census.
Mundelein greatly expanded in size in 2022 with the annexation of over 700 acres of land owned by the Wirtz family; the owners of the Chicago Blackhawks. The plan was to develop 1,200 houses and 600 townhomes there.
In January of 2026, the Audubon Council of Illinois designated it an Illinois Bird City.
Geography
Mundelein is located northwest of the Chicago Loop. Mundelein borders Hawthorn Woods and Vernon Hills to the south and east, and is primarily located within the Indian Creek watershed in Lake County. Since 1999, the record high was 103 °F in July 2012 during the 2012 North American heat wave, while the record low was -26 °F in January 2019 during the January–February 2019 North American cold wave.