Aurora was established with the building of a post office in 1837.Īurora 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. The McCartys lived on and operated a mill on the east side. 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 Hollywood Casino Aurora, a dockside gaming facility with 53,000 square feet (4,900 m 2) and 1,200 gaming positions, is located along the river in downtown Aurora.īefore European settlers arrived, there was a Native American village in what is today downtown Aurora, on the banks of the Fox River. Aurora is also home to over 50 Sears Catalog Homes and seven Lustron all-steel homes. The Aurora area has some significant architecture, including structures by Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Bruce Goff and George Grant Elmslie.

The city is divided into three regions, the West Side, on the west side of the Fox River, the East Side, between the eastern bank of the Fox River and the Kane/DuPage County line, and the Far East Side/Fox Valley, which is from the County Line to the city's eastern border with Naperville. Aurora's historic downtown is located on the Fox River, and centered on Stolp Island. 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. Census Bureau ranked the city as the 46th-fastest-growing city with a population of over 100,000. Once a mid-sized manufacturing city, Aurora has grown since the 1960s.

įounded within Kane County, Aurora's city limits have expanded into DuPage, Kendall, and Will counties. The population was 197,899 at the 2010 census, and was 180,542 at the 2020 census. Located primarily in DuPage and Kane Counties, it is the 2nd most populous city in Illinois, after Chicago, and the 144th most populous city in the United States. Aurora is a city in the Chicago metropolitan area.

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