Le Roy (also styled "LeRoy") is a city in McLean County, Illinois, United States. The population was 3,512 at the 2020 census.
Geography
Le Roy is located at (40.347168, -88.762293).
According to the 2010 census, Le Roy has a total area of , of which (or 99.32%) is land and (or 0.68%) is water.
Le Roy is the official eastern boundary of Central Illinois. A commemorative placard can be found near pump 6 at the Casey’s General Store in Le Roy.
History
Founding of LeRoy
LeRoy was laid out on 28 November 1835 by Asahel Gridley (26 April 1810 – 25 January 1881) and Merritt L. Covell (30 January 1808 – 17 September 1847). The founders were Bloomington businessmen. They had served together in the Black Hawk War, Covell as a captain and Gridley as a lieutenant. Because of their brief service both men were popularly called "General". Both would later serve in the Illinois General Assembly, and Gridley would eventually become McLean County's first millionaire.
LeRoy was the first of eight towns to be laid out within the present boundaries of McLean County during the great Illinois town-founding boom which peaked in the summer of 1836. LeRoy was located on a low mound, on prairie land, where the Bloomington to Danville state road crossed the road from Shelbyville to Chicago. The chief problem confronting Gridley and Covell was a place called Munroe, which consisted of a single store run by John W. Baddeley (24 June 1794 – 19 February 1871). It was located a mile and a half southwest of the new town. Although generally said to have been laid out in 1834 or 1836, no plat of the town has yet been found. Baddeley had been born in Whitchurch, Shropshire, England, and had come to the United States with his family in 1832. He had quickly entered a thousand acres (4 km) of land in Empire Township and seemed on his way to becoming a wealthy and important man. Baddeley was offered twenty-seven prime lots in LeRoy if he would move his store to the newly established town. Baddeley agreed. He lost most of his fortune in 1837 but continued to do business in LeRoy for many years.
Original design of the town
Like most Central Illinois towns of the 1830s LeRoy was built around a central "Public Circle". The circle at LeRoy featured streets which joined the public area midway along each side and is very similar to squares platted at Mt. Hope, Danvers, and Lexington. Except for some rounding at the corners to ease the flow of traffic, the square today retains its 1835 shape. Gridley and Covell's "Original Town" contained twenty-five blocks, almost all with eight lots, for a total of 196 lots. Early commercial growth was along Center Street just east of the square, and this has continued to be the commercial heart of the town. The original street names selected for LeRoy are virtually identical to those in the town of Lexington, which Gridley also co-founded: Center, Cedar, Cherry, Chestnut, East, Elm, Main North, Oak, Pine, Vine, Walnut and West. Unlike Lexington, LeRoy has no South Street.
First advertisement
In November 1835 Gridley and Covell set about selling lots in their new town. They published a lengthy advertisement in the Sangamon Journal which is both the earliest description of LeRoy and a statement of why the two men had selected this location for a town. It begins with the bold heading "Town of Leroy". The reader is first told that Leroy was located on the north side of Buckle's Grove on Salt Creek. The crossing of the two roads is noted along with being east of Bloomington. "The site of the town is as beautiful as can well be conceived – situated on the margin of a rolling undulating prairie on an eminence gently descending in every direction and commanding an extensive view of the surrounding country, with an open expanse of prairie scenery on the north and west relieved by occasional groves of timber. No situation can well surpass it for beauty." They go on to write that LeRoy is "... located in the heart of a rich and flourishing settlement with a large amount of timber of quality inferior to none in the state in its immediate vicinity... it is believed that no interior town possesses superior advantages." Several excellent mill sites were located nearby. The advertisement concludes, "A further description is deemed unnecessary, as all who wish to make investments will doubtless visit it previous to investing." Unlike many ads of the period, the date and time of the auction of town lots is not given. Later sources relate that the lots sold well, "the bidding was spirited, and some of them sold at a high price."