Crest Hill, IL

Crest Hill is a Will County city next to Joliet, incorporated in part to avoid being annexed by its larger neighbor. Most of the city is zoned to Lockport Township High School, and the community has a notable World War II memory through Stern Park Gardens, which renamed itself Lidice in 1942 after the Lidice massacre. Crest Hill feels like a practical southwest Chicago-area suburb: residential streets, local schools, shopping corridors, and a civic identity shaped by its position between Joliet and Lockport.