BLOOMINGTON, a city in the north-central part of Illinois, U.S.A., 125m. south-west of Chicago; the county seat of McLean county. It is an important highway and railway centre of the Illinois corn-belt ; at the intersection of Federal highways 51 and 66 and nine State highways; is served by the Chicago and Alton, the Illinois Central, the Big Four, the Nickel Plate, and the Illinois Traction (electric) railways; and has a municipal airport, with hangar and equipment. The population was 28,725 in 19 20 (8 7 % native white) ; and was 30,93o in 193o.
The city has 6om. of wide paved streets, shaded with elms, oaks, and maples which were systematically planted in its early days. It is the headquarters of the Chicago and Alton Railroad, which has here its general offices and shops employing 3,00o men. Important industries are connected with books and stationery; stoves and furnaces; portable barn elevators and smoke-houses, concrete ventilated corn-cribs and granaries, and lighting plants for farms ; washing machines, oil burners, ventilating systems, window screens, awnings, automobile and aeroplane radiators, etc. The varied output of the manufacturing establishments in 1927 was valued at about $16,000,000. Coal has been mined in the vicinity since 1867. Illinois Wesleyan University, founded here in 185o by a group of the county families, has an enrolment of about 1,200 and an endowment of over $r,000,000. In 1857 the first State institution for the training of teachers in the Mississippi valley (now called the State Normal University) was established on the outskirts of Bloomington, in what is now the separately incorporated town of Normal. Its enrolment is about 1,600, besides over 3,00o in the summer school. The State home for the orphans of soldiers and sailors is here. There are three country clubs, a municipal golf course, a choral society of 30o voices, and a theatrical organization of 30o members. Bloomington stands on the site of Blooming Grove, which was crossed by several trails in pioneer days. The first settlement was made in 1822; the town became the county seat in 1831, and was incorporated as a city in 185o; the public school system was established in In 1856 it was the meeting place of the first convention of the Republican Party in Illinois, called by editors of the state who were opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and attended (among others) by Owen Lovejoy, Richard Yates, John M. Palmer, and Abraham Lincoln.