Attractive Bolingbrook earns some national attention
Bolingbrook, a young, vibrant community with a multicultural population, was ranked 43rd in Money Magazine's 2010 Best Places to Live in the United States.
The attractive town offers tree-lined streets, well-tended lawns, peaceful neighborhoods, excellent parks and recreation and quality schools. Its main streets feature wide, landscaped medians and flowering trees.
Broker Joe Jensen of Jensen Realtors refers to Bolingbrook as the town of the future. “I've been selling real estate for more than 30 years, and Bolingbrook has always been a good community. It's a well-kept secret with a great location at the crossroads of two major highways.["]
Bolingbrook got its start in the early 1960s when a builder laid out the first housing tract in the farm fields just north of old Route 66, next to Route 53.
Advertisements for model homes pictured a handsome and distinguished British butler named Mr. Dover, which drew young families out to the far west farmlands to see the new homes. It was an easy trip from Chicago via the Stevenson Expressway, the new and improved Route 66.
The first model homes went up on Rocklyn Court, off Route 53. And the first homes ready for families to move into were on Avondale Court, just west of Route 53 and north of Briarcliff Road. Homes priced at $10,000 required only $200 down. Of course, everything you see in model homes aren't included in the finished house, and in the case of Dover homes, that meant no carpeting or even floor tile in some areas unless you paid extra. And there were no trees or lawns; even some of the streets were not yet paved.
The three original home tracts sold from 1961 to 1965 under the names of Westbury, Colonial Village and King's Park were all part of the original “Bolingbrook subdivision.["]
Today, Bolingbrook continues to draw buyers to its borders with real estate as diverse as its population.
You can get housing here at any level from $100,000 for starter homes to $1 million homes that sit on the golf course and have 6,000 or 8,000 square feet, Jensen said. Americana Estates on a 28-acre lake sits adjacent to the Bolingbrook Golf Club, and luxury newer subdivisions include River Hills, Patriot Place and Herrington Estates.
The Bolingbrook Golf Club is one of the finest golf courses in the area. When more than 300 new public courses opened in 2002, the Bolingbrook club was selected as one of the top 10. And the course and clubhouse continue to be highly rated in several golf magazines.
The Bolingbrook Park District maintains 47 parks. This includes the 72-acre Central Park, home to the Annerino Community Center, and a skate park that is one of the premier skate parks in the Midwest. A smaller skate park resides in Indian Boundary Park.
For those who love the outdoors, the Hidden Oaks Nature Center offers adventure, learning and fun by way of indoor exhibits and outdoor hiking trails with interpretive learning experiences. Hidden Lakes Historic Trout Farm features stocked ponds where residents can spend the day fishing without traveling too far from home.
The Pelican Harbor indoor and outdoor water park is also a popular spot for residents, as is the Boughton Ridge Golf Course, a nine-hole course on 45 acres that has been remodeled and includes a comedy club.
Bolingbrook has lots of good shopping such as The Promenade Shopping Center, IKEA and Costco, along with lots of fine restaurants, said Jean Kelly, associate broker with RE/MAX Professionals.
“The Promenade is tremendous; It's drawing people from 20 to 25 miles away,["] Jensen said. “It's the kind of place where ladies come to hang around in the daytime. There are a lot of upscale shops there.
The community has a hockey rink that's independently owned, a new hospital and a nice high school that was built about five years ago, Kelly adds, as well as festivals and entertainment.
“We have typical jubilees, “Jensen said, “and behind city hall we have concerts on the hill, and they bring in a lot of good groups for that. It takes on a very theatrical atmosphere similar to Ravinia.["]