Carlinville

[linicx]

Central Illinois has a lot to offer without going to St.Louis. For instance there are 5 zoological parks, seven malls, at least three dozen grocers, 24 shopping centers, planetarium, more parks than you can count, look out tower, museums (two children's) 15 hospitals (one children's), 1000 restaurants, river cruises, and more. The trade-off is distance verse big city traffic. The only thing you cannot find in Central Illinois is Trader Joe's and IKEA. Costco, deli, fish markets, meat markets, and natural food stores are easy to find. In nice weather it is pleasant drive and great way to get acquainted with Illinois.

One of the side trips is the largest wildlife refuge and sanctuary outside of the Everglades and the only state forest. It is in the Mississippi Flyway. Another side trip is to follow Lincoln's path when he was a circuit rider or Reagan's path when he was a student.

[Dad01]

Originally Posted by GirlWithAHorse

I'm writing this in the event someone's looking for a current entry about Carlinville. We moved here over the summer of 2013. Regarding housing: As this is a town of less than 6,000 people, you are limited to what's available when you're looking. The Bellm apartments around town are well-managed and clean. There are usually some houses for rent, some are great, many are not. We networked with Rotary members, real estate agents and the Refuge Coffeehouse to meet real estate owners who weren't advertising in the local paper. Rents are higher here than in surrounding towns b/c of the college, and those towns are not too far away to consider commuting.

We have found people to be quite welcoming and helpful. People enthusiastically support school sports and young people's activities. The Lions' Club carnival for young children is a wonderful event that brings together the entire community. So many people have either lived here their entire lives or grew up here, moved away for awhile and returned to raise their families. The sense of community here is quite strong.

There is an IGA market, a Walmart and a wonderful meat/liquor market called Primal Meats. Small farmers' markets offer seasonal produce on Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings spring through fall. Several nice stores and restaurants around the downtown square currently include My Sister's Closet, a pharmacy, a dance studio, Refuge Coffeehouse, Taylor's Chili House. Abella's and Angus Bailey's restaurants. If shopping is very important to you, Springfield (an easy 45 minutes north) offers almost every store one could possibly want. St. Louis (70 minutes south) is a world-class city with wonderful cultural opportunities, shopping, restaurants, the works.

Major businesses here include Prairie Farms dairy, Karmak (a trucking industry software company) and Blackburn College. The farming appears to be mostly corn and soybeans, and there are several apple and peach orchards. We were VERY pleasantly surprised by the peach orchards, and the peaches are wonderful!

We have spent our lives mostly in large cities and in the west, and this is our first experience in the midwest. Our experience here has been overwhelmingly positive.

awesome place to live ! and some of the nicest people Ive met. Its like a bedroom community for St Louis so even though its small and off the beaten track the people here are usually very cosmopolitan and usually travel for work


East main street is a great place to live ! Carl IGA have great donuts and Refugee is a a nice place to hangout and study if you need to.Angus bailey has closed down AFAIK but there is a Chinese place on the square and a couple of pizza places which are kind of decent.
Great place to raise a family and very safe, if you count the surrounding Macoupin county countryside the population is a little higher.Litchfield IL is only 10 min away where you can find some more of the chain stores. There is an antique mall close by and lots of opportunities for hunting in the surrounding country.

[cuja1]

Originally Posted by Dad01

awesome place to live ! and some of the nicest people Ive met. Its like a bedroom community for St Louis so even though its small and off the beaten track the people here are usually very cosmopolitan and usually travel for work


East main street is a great place to live ! Carl IGA have great donuts and Refugee is a a nice place to hangout and study if you need to.Angus bailey has closed down AFAIK but there is a Chinese place on the square and a couple of pizza places which are kind of decent.
Great place to raise a family and very safe, if you count the surrounding Macoupin county countryside the population is a little higher.Litchfield IL is only 10 min away where you can find some more of the chain stores. There is an antique mall close by and lots of opportunities for hunting in the surrounding country.

Is it a bedroom community for STL? I would have thought Springfield.

[Raven Anne]

we have been through there several times for Anime conventions we like Carlinville they have a great country and western Club if you like to dance they have go karts mini golf area the Bob Evans restaurant is much better than the ones we have by us that's all I know right this minute

[Dad01]

Originally Posted by cuja1

Is it a bedroom community for STL? I would have thought Springfield.

in my opinion they have stronger links with colinsville, E ville and STL burbs than springfield