Editing Vernon Hills, Illinois (section)

== History ==
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The land that was to become Vernon Hills, founded by Richard Theodore Freese, Ron Freese, Nathan Kowitt, and Jim Carswell, began with the establishment of a {{convert|200|acre|km2|adj=on}} farm in 1857. Use of the land remained relatively static until the 1960s, when part of it was purchased for a residential community and golf course; the development was the first use of the name "Vernon Hills." On June 16, 1958, the village officially incorporated with 123 residents and 125 houses in a single subdivision built by Quinn Hogan and Barney Loeb.<ref name="vernonhills.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.vernonhills.org/Index.aspx?NID=108|title=History of Vernon Hills|publisher=Village of Vernon Hills|access-date=April 7, 2017}}</ref> During these times, the village and police department were run from a local motel until 1971 when village trustees bought two portable buildings.<ref name="vernonhills.org"/> It saw steady but slow growth until the annexing of a plot of land near the corner of IL-60 and [[Illinois Route 21|IL-21]] in 1971, which led to the building of {{convert|1200000|sqft|m2|adj=on}} [[Hawthorn Mall|Hawthorn Center]]. By 1980, the village's population had grown to almost 10,000 residents, and by 2000, it had surpassed 20,000.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, the village grew geographically through the annexation of surrounding areas. This included land that would become the Corporate Woods business park and Centennial Crossing residential development (1986), a {{convert|1200|acre|km2|adj=on}} section of [[Libertyville, Illinois#History|Hawthorne-Mellody Farms]] (1988), and part of the village of [[Half Day, Illinois|Half Day]] (1994).