The Bloomington area was at the edge of a large grove occupied by the Kickapoo people before the first Euro-American settlers arrived in the early 1820s.

At this time there were few roads, but rich soils brought new farmers who began commerce by conducting their business in the county.

People came from all over to trade and do business at the town's center, known today as Downtown Bloomington, including Abraham Lincoln, who worked as a lawyer in nearby Springfield.

During this, the Illinois National Guard had been stationed outside the courthouse where mediation was occurring, equipped with machine gun emplacements.

[14] During her two terms as mayor, an arena was built in downtown Bloomington and the city's performing arts center began restoration.

Bloomington is home to State Farm Insurance,[26] Country Financial, Illinois Agricultural Association, and Beer Nuts.

[38] The Illinois Wesleyan University Westbrook Auditorium serves approximately 200 music majors and several hundred IWU students each year.

It provides children's workshops and outreach programs, and presents at Illinois Wesleyan University's McPherson Theatre three times a year.

[42][43] The Illinois Shakespeare Festival includes productions performed in an open-air, Elizabethan-style theatre within historic Ewing Manor each summer.

4-H activities include: livestock shows, a film festival, and exhibits around food, nutrition & health, plant science, engineering & technology, and environment & natural resources.

Ewing Manor was designed by Bloomington architect Phil Hooten in the Channel-Norman style favored by the affluent in the post-Victorian period.

Housed inside the old McLean County Courthouse, the museum features permanent and rotating exhibits that explore the history of Central Illinois.

The black granite memorial is surrounded by red sidewalks that list the names of Central Illinois residents killed or missing in action in the Korean and Vietnam battles.

[48] The Prairie Aviation Museum has a collection of preserved aircraft on display, including a Bell Sea Cobra, Huey helicopter, and F-14 Tomcat.

Other historical figures buried there include David Davis, friend and mentor to Abraham Lincoln; Charles Radbourn, arguably 19th-century baseball's greatest pitcher; and Dorothy Gage, inspiration for the main character in the Wizard of Oz and niece of author L. Frank Baum.

The Davis Mansion, completed in 1872, combines Italianate and Second Empire architectural features and is a model of mid-Victorian style and taste.

His Bloomington home, which remained in the Davis family for three succeeding generations, contains the most modern conveniences of that era: a coal-burning stove, gas lighting and indoor plumbing.

[49] These facilities often contain water spray parks, elaborate playgrounds, miniature golf, baseball/softball diamonds, soccer fields, cricket grounds, and lighted tennis courts.

The north–south segment of the trail follows the abandoned Illinois Central Gulf railroad from Kerrick Road in Normal to Grove Street in Bloomington.

The trail is open to walkers, runners, in-line skaters, skateboarders, cyclists, wheelchair users, and other non-motorized forms of transportation.

[51] The Genevieve Green Gardens at Ewing Cultural Center were dedicated in 2007 as part of the Illinois State University's 150th anniversary celebration.

The gardens include a public entry that directs visitors to a formal plaza, the entrance to the manor, a grass patio, theater walk with a widened walkway, and additional plantings.

Then from 2014 to 2019 Bloomington was the home of the Central Illinois Flying Aces who played in the United States Hockey League.

[56] Located in South Bloomington, the Highland Park Golf Course has numerous challenges including creeks, three lakes, well-placed sand traps and tree-lined fairways.

Highland Park sports a pro shop, carts, club rental and snack bar and offers individual or group lessons.

[56] Prairie Vista sports 16 water hazards, a wave bunker, two-level greens and fairways, much sand, a pro shop, carts, club rental, snack bar, banquet room and driving range.

In 1888, the library moved into a new two-story building at the corner of East and Washington Streets on land donated by Sarah B. Withers.

It offers a number of public programs, including a Bookmobile, started in 1926 as Library on Wheels, that delivers to local neighborhoods.

The station activates the SAME tone alarm feature and a 1050 Hz tone activating older radios (except for AMBER Alerts, using the SAME feature only) for hazardous weather and non-weather warnings and emergencies, along with selected weather watches, for the Illinois counties of McLean, Tazewell, and Woodford.

Burlington Trailways offers service from the Amtrak station and the Greyhound station to/from Peoria, Quad Cities, Illinois/Iowa, Champaign, and Indianapolis The Central Illinois Regional Airport on Route 9 is served by four airlines (Delta Air Lines, American Eagle, Frontier and Allegiant Air), five rental car agencies, and has direct daily flights to Atlanta (Delta), Chicago (American Eagle), Dallas-Ft. Worth (American Eagle), Detroit (Delta), and Minneapolis/St.