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Preston Heights, Illinois

22 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1892 and the latest in 1999. It stands in Joliet Township. It lies in ZIP code area 60436. It stands on Sugar Run. The Survey maps it on the Elwood quadrangle. 2,898 people lived here at the 2020 count.

Preston Heights within Will County

Population over time

2 figures

Preston Heights grew from 2,575 to 2,898 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
20102,575
20202,898+323 (+13%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 22 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

In the county-history sources

16,216 words on this township

The History of Will County, Illinois, Containing a History of the County ... a Directory of Its Real Estate Owners; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; General and Local Statistics ... History of Illinois ... History of the Northwest .., published 1878 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The chapter on Joliet Township covers the township.

Read the chapter on Joliet Township - 16,216 words.

Fires near this place

1 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Preston Heights in 2008, burning about 6 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
15 August 2008Debris and open burning6.5 acresMidewin National Tall Grass PrairieMILLSDALE FIRE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Will County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 15 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 15 workings within 5 miles of Preston Heights: 10 past producers, 3 producers, 1 plant, 1 occurrence. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Phosphorus-Phosphates, Magnesite. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
U S Refactories Div. MillMagnesiteProducer
Joliet Phos-Acid PlantPhosphorus-PhosphatesPlant
Joliet Phosphoric Acid PlantPhosphorus-PhosphatesPast Producer
Gross & Mc Cowan Lumber Co. QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Inland Crushed Stone Co QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Jackson Township QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Joliet Quarry & Mill Yard 340Stone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Limestone ProspectStone, Crushed/BrokenOccurrence
Lincoln Stone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Markgraf Stone Company QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Will County

Storms near this place

4 since 2025

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Preston Heights in 4 storm reports between 2025 and 2026: 3 hail, 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
March 2026HailPreston Heights-A photo showed hail to the size of quarters.
March 2026HailPreston Heights-A photo showed ping pong size hail at Route 53 and Laraway Road.
March 2025Tornado (EF0)Preston Heights-A tornado touched down just southeast of the intersection of Rowell Avenue and Eunice Avenue in Preston Heights. This brief tornado moved east-northeast across Eunice Avenue, causing shingle damage to one house and uprooting a few trees. Metal panels and pieces of a car port were blown to the northeast at least 200 yards, and one vehicle was blown over. Peak winds were estimated at 75 mph. This tornado dissipated near Howliston Court.
September 2025HailPreston Heights-Quarter size hail was reported along with several other reports of penny size hail.

Every storm recorded in Will County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Michigan Beach1.9 miles23
Rockdale2.0 miles23
Joliet2.3 miles23
Idylside2.8 miles23
Ingalls Park3.0 miles23
Union3.1 miles22
East Joliet3.4 miles23
Ridgewood3.7 miles23

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Preston HeightsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q575212The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 422270. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.