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.
Population over time
2 figuresPreston 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 2,575 | |
| 2020 | 2,898 | +323 (+13%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 22 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1892 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1918 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:62500, 5 printings
- 1953 USGS Elwood quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1954 USGS Wilmington quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Aurora quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Aurora quadrangle1:250000
- 1985 USGS Ottawa quadrangle1:100000
- 1991 USGS Ottawa quadrangle1:100000
- 1993 USGS Elwood quadrangle1:24000
- 1999 USGS Elwood quadrangle1:24000
In the county-history sources
16,216 words on this townshipThe 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 2008Regional 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 burning | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 August 2008 | Debris and open burning | 6.5 acres | Midewin National Tall Grass Prairie | MILLSDALE FIRE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 15 shownRegional 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U S Refactories Div. Mill | Magnesite | Producer | ||
| Joliet Phos-Acid Plant | Phosphorus-Phosphates | Plant | ||
| Joliet Phosphoric Acid Plant | Phosphorus-Phosphates | Past Producer | ||
| Gross & Mc Cowan Lumber Co. Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Inland Crushed Stone Co Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Jackson Township Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Joliet Quarry & Mill Yard 340 | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Limestone Prospect | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Occurrence | ||
| Lincoln Stone Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Markgraf Stone Company Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
4 since 2025Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2026 | Hail | Preston Heights | - | A photo showed hail to the size of quarters. |
| March 2026 | Hail | Preston Heights | - | A photo showed ping pong size hail at Route 53 and Laraway Road. |
| March 2025 | Tornado (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 2025 | Hail | Preston Heights | - | Quarter size hail was reported along with several other reports of penny size hail. |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan Beach | 1.9 miles | 23 | |
| Rockdale | 2.0 miles | 23 | |
| Joliet | 2.3 miles | 23 | |
| Idylside | 2.8 miles | 23 | |
| Ingalls Park | 3.0 miles | 23 | |
| Union | 3.1 miles | 22 | |
| East Joliet | 3.4 miles | 23 | |
| Ridgewood | 3.7 miles | 23 |
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 Heights | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q575212 | The 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.









