EVANSTON

city, Cook county, northeastern Illinois, U.S., on Lake Michigan, immediately north of Chicago. Evanston grew up around Northwestern University. A group of Chicago businessmen purchased property along the lakeshore for the university in 1853 under a special state charter of 1851. The university has expanded on landfill. The city was named for John Evans, one of the founders of the university. Evanston is noted as an educational and religious centre. Northwestern University's Technological Institute building was completed in 1942. The second assembly of the World Council of Churches was held in Evanston in 1954, and the Ecumenical Institute was established there in 1958. Other institutions of higher education in Evanston include Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary (1855), a United Methodist graduate theological school; Kendall College (1934); National-Louis University (founded in Chicago in 1886 and moved to Evanston in 1926); and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary (Episcopal, 1933). A number of national organizations headquartered there include the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, Rotary International, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), and several national boards and agencies of the United Methodist Church. The home of Frances E. Willard, an early advocate of the WCTU, was designated a national landmark in 1966. The Evanston Historical Society is housed in the former home of Charles Gates Dawes, U.S. vice president (192529). The Cradle, a nonsectarian adoption home, was founded there in 1923. Grosse Point Lighthouse, built in 1873, is a point of interest. The city is primarily a residential suburb, with a racially and economically diverse population. Manufactures include paper and steel products, hospital supplies, paint, chemicals, and books. Inc. town, 1863; city, 1892. Pop. (1990) 73,233.