Olympia Fields, Illinois
| Olympia Fields, Illinois | |
| Village | |
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| Official name: Village of Olympia Fields | |
| Motto: Where People Make the Village | |
| Country | United States |
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| State | Illinois |
| County | Cook |
| Township | Bloom and Rich |
| Coordinates | 41°31′6″N 87°41′34″W / 41.51833°N 87.69278°WCoordinates: 41°31′6″N 87°41′34″W / 41.51833°N 87.69278°W |
| Area | 2.94 sq mi (8 km2) |
| - land | 2.94 sq mi (8 km2) |
| - water | 0.00 sq mi (0 km2) |
| Population | 4,988 (2010) |
| Density | 1,696.6/sq mi (655/km2) |
| Founded | 1927 |
| Government | Village |
| Village president | Debbie Meyers-Martin |
| Timezone | CST (UTC-6) |
| - summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| Postal code | 60461 |
| Area code | 708 |
 Location in Cook County and the state of Illinois.
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.svg) Location of Illinois in the United States
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Website: www |
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Olympia Fields is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,988 at the 2010 census. The municipality grew up around the prestigious Olympia Fields Country Club, originally established in 1915.
Olympia Fields is noteworthy as one of the wealthiest and best educated "majority black" communities in the United States; the village's ZIP Code (60461) is one of three with a majority African American population that ranks among the top five percent in the U.S. as a whole for median household income and for the share of adults with college degrees.
The area that comprises the village today was once farmland managed by immigrant families during the 1830s. The Illinois Central Railroad began serving the area in the 1850s, which fostered population and economic growth during that era.
In 1893, the Columbian Exposition opened in Chicago, and southern Cook County became an increasingly popular retreat for busy Chicagoans. By 1913, the area's lush woodlands and rolling terrain convinced a group of investors led by Charles Beach to establish a golf course catering to Chicago's wealthy elite. Beach and his friend James Gardner developed a magnificent 72-hole golf course and country club, chartered in 1915 as Olympia Fields Country Club. Amos Alonzo Stagg, the famed football coach of the University of Chicago, became the Club's first president. The name "Olympia" was proposed by Stagg. The word "Fields" was added because it aptly described the young community's pastoral terrain.
In the early 20th century, golf and the resort atmosphere in the area south of Chicago because so popular that some families lived in canvas-covered "cottages" during the summer months, while others built more permanent homes on the western side of the railroad tracks beginning as early as 1919. The clubhouse, built in 1924, is on the National Register of Historic Places. The golf course is considered one of the finest in the nation. It was home to the 1928 and 2003 U.S. Open, the 1925 and 1961 PGA Championship, the 1997 Senior U.S. Open, and the Western Open. Olympia Fields Country Club has been selected by the United States Golf Association as the site of the 2015 U.S. Amateur Championship.
The country club's founder, Charles Beach, organized the effort to incorporate the residential areas around the Country Club as a municipality, and in 1927, the Village of Olympia Fields was created with Beach as its first president. His home, built to reflect the design and character of the Country Club, still stands at the southwest corner of Kedzie Avenue and 203rd Street. Today, the grounds of the Country Club remain unincorporated, outside the jurisdiction of the Olympia Fields village government.
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