Aurora doesn't look it, but it's the second largest city in Illinois, after Chicago. It features many interesting buildings designed to a higher caliber than most small towns and county seats of the USA. I grew up very close to Aurora, so I'm familiar with its landmarks and culture.
Aurora, the "City of Lights," is a city in Kane County in northeast Illinois. With a population of 180,500 people as of 2020, it is the second-largest city in Illinois, and it is also the largest city in Illinois that is not a county seat.
Aurora was first settled as a Native American village, but white people moved onto its land in 1834. It was officially founded with the construction of a post office in 1837, and the city was originally two: East Aurora, incorporated in 1845, and West Aurora, incorporated in 1854. The two joined in 1857, but after disagreements on the placement of civic buildings, they were placed on Stolp Island on the Fox River.
Aurora rapidly industrialized and became a railroad hub, most notably for the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railroad. Its railroads and factories drew immigrants to provide labor, first European immigrants and later Mexicans. This melting pot of culture created a very progressive political attitude for the time. Aurora's early adoption of electric streetlights in the 1880s earned it the nickname "City of Lights."
With the decline and eventual closure of the majority of railroad shops in the 1970s, the factories that provided manufacturing jobs closed or relocated. This deindustrialization, along with divestment of downtown and the areas close to it in favor of suburban sprawl, resulted in an increase in crime and the formation of street gangs. Aurora was also experiencing an increase in its Hispanic population at the time, which remains and still defines the city's culture today.
Aurora has improved today due to reinvestment in the downtown area, such as with the Hollywood Casino and works of preservation. The city and its surrounding area contains many notable works of architecture.
A ★ denotes a building with its own article.