Urbana, Illinois

Urbana was platted in eighteen thirty-three as the seat of Champaign County, Illinois, the same year the county itself was organized. The town takes its name from Urbana, Ohio, the hometown of state senator John Vance, who wrote the act creating the county. For most of its first decades, Urbana sat across a muddy divide from its twin, Champaign, each jealous of the other, until the Illinois Central Railroad chose the rival side in eighteen fifty-four and Champaign surged ahead in commerce.

Urbana compensated by anchoring government and, crucially, the Illinois Industrial University, which opened in eighteen sixty-eight and later became the University of Illinois. Today the twin cities share a population of around one hundred thirty thousand, and the campus, one of the largest public research universities in the country, defines life on both sides of the line.