Millburn Historic District

Millburn is a small unincorporated village in Lake County, Illinois, about ten miles west of Waukegan, where U.S. Route 45 meets Millburn Road and Grass Lake Road. The district holds 18 major structures, most of them houses, plus a church and a former general store. At least 13 date from the 1800s. Scottish settlers led by the Strang brothers claimed the land in 1838, and the place was first called Strang's Corners; a church was organized in 1840. The earliest surviving dated buildings, the John Strang house and Robert Strang's store, were built in 1856. Other notable buildings include the 1867 Robert Strang House in Milwaukee cream brick, the 1880 John M. Strang residence, and the 1862 Pantall-Martin Store, later the last operating general store in Lake County. Railroads built in the 1880s and 1890s bypassed the village, so growth went elsewhere. The district is valued as a preserved example of an early rural crossroads settlement and for its mid-19th-century architecture.