Hillcrest, IL

Hillcrest is a village in Ogle County just outside Rochelle, formed in the early 1950s on what was first called the Bogue Addition. Dr. Arthur Bogue owned the farmhouse on the hill and began developing the area; he later pushed the name Hillcrest, though it took years for the new name to stick. The village was incorporated in part to control the spread of house trailers, an unusually specific origin story for a place now marked by tree-lined streets, parkland, and surrounding farm ground. Most students are in Rochelle Community Consolidated District 231, with a smaller section in Kings Consolidated District 144; everyone attends Rochelle Township High School District 212. Hillcrest is a small Ogle County village whose name finally outlasted its first one.