Brimfield, IL

Brimfield is a Peoria County village about 18 miles northwest of Peoria, with 778 residents at the 2020 census. The village sits in the Peoria metropolitan area but keeps a compact center, farm-country edges, and its own calendar. Brimfield Community Unit School District 309 puts the grade school and high school across the street from each other, so younger students and high-school activities share the same visible campus. The village's city park adds baseball space and a place for the local calendar to land.

Brimfield incorporated in 1895, but its Old Settlers' Day tradition reaches back to 1889. The village still holds Old Settlers' Days, along with a summer Super Cruise In and other community events. The local library keeps school yearbooks, plat books, family histories, and photo albums for the surrounding area. Nearby Jubilee College State Historic Site preserves the remains of an Episcopal school founded in 1839, adding an older layer to the roads around town. Brimfield is a small place with a school across the street, a park diamond, and a long habit of gathering.