Yankee farmers established homesteads in what became the heart of downtown Mount Prospect after signing a Potawatomi treaty in 1833. New Englanders cleared and farmed the land until 1843. Many of these settlers, however, moved west for larger claims, and were replaced by German immigrants, who planted the roots of a small rural community.
In 1900, the community still fell short of the three hundred people required for incorporation. A group of small businessmen known as the Mount Prospect Improvement Association pushed for official empowerment to solicit funds through taxation. In May 1917, the village immediately incorporated when a newborn infant became Mount Prospect’s three-hundredth resident.
The village’s post– World War II population growth was similar to neighboring communities with an influx of white, middle-class Chicagoans. During the 1950s, the population increased 370 percent to 18,906, prompting village officials to adopt a council-manager form of government. In this period of growth, the Randhurst Corporation opened an enclosed and air-conditioned mall, Randhurst Shopping Center (1962). The village also attracted new industry and light manufacturing with the addition of the Kensington Center (1974).
Today, Mount Prospect is a home to many middle class families and its population is 54,167.
Encyclopedia of Chicago