It is located on land donated by Lyman Wilmot, whose wife, Clarissa, was the village's first schoolteacher.

In the 1850s, the Deerfield home of Lyman Wilmot served as a stop on the Underground Railroad as escaped slaves attempted to get to Canada.

[5] In a 1917 design by Thomas E. Tallmadge of the American Institute of Architects, Deerfield (and adjacent Highland Park) served as the center for a new proposed capital city of the United States.

[5] By that year, all of Deerfield's original farms had been converted either to residential areas or golf courses.

[7] Following World War II, a portion of Waukegan Road (Route 43) that runs through Deerfield was designated a Blue Star Memorial Highway.

[8] In 1959, when Deerfield officials learned that a developer building a neighborhood of large new homes planned to make houses available to African Americans, they issued a stop-work order.

An intense debate began about racial integration, property values, and the good faith of community officials and builders.

Eventually, the village passed a referendum to build parks on the property, thus putting an end to the housing development.

[9] The developer, Morris Milgram, sued the city charging that it had violated the Fourteenth Amendment.

[12] Since the early 1980s, Deerfield has seen an increase in the population of Jews, Asians, and Greeks, giving the community a more diverse cultural and ethnic makeup.

It was billed as the world's first industrial plant with a fully automated production control system and was designed by Stanley Winton.

The plant closed in 1990 as Sara Lee consolidated production in Tarboro, North Carolina.

In 2015, a plan to rezone a parcel of land originally zoned for single-family homes, in order to allow the construction of a 48-unit affordable apartment building complex, was proposed.

[18] In 2018, the Village Board of Trustees unanimously approved a ban on what were described as certain types of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,[19] amending a 2013 ordinance that regulated the storage of those items.

One of the lawsuits is based on the Illinois state preemption statute regarding local bans enacted after 2013.

[21] Deerfield was a sister city with Lüdinghausen, Germany, until the commission was dissolved in October 2019 due to inactivity.

[26] Deerfield is bordered to the north by Bannockburn, to the east by Highland Park, to the south by Northbrook and to the west by Riverwoods.

In 1982 a 324-acre (131 ha) tax increment financing district opened along Lake-Cook Road, spurring business development.

Two hotels, an Embassy Suites and a Hyatt, opened during the era to accommodate the increased business traffic.

In 1990, the Deerfield Sara Lee plant and bakery headquarters was closed, and the land was sold to developers.

Deerfield Public Library was a temporary tenant of this mall in 2012 and 2013 while the main location was being renovated.

However, Maplewood, Woodland Park, Briarwood, and Cadwell were all closed beginning in the 1970s through the 1980s and their students absorbed by the four larger, remaining elementary schools.

[66] Several Pace buses, routes 627, 631, 632, 633, 634, and 635, connect the Lake Cook Road station to corporate offices in the area during rush hour periods.

[27] The village purchases its water in bulk from Highland Park to distribute to residents and businesses.

[71] Deerfield operates its own sewage treatment plant on Hackberry Lane, with the outflow entering the a branch of the Chicago River.

[111] In the 1980s, Deerfield and other North Shore communities inspired the teen films of director/screenwriter John Hughes.

The fictional Shermer, Illinois, included elements of Deerfield and neighboring Northbrook and Highland Park.

[citation needed] A number of media properties have been set and/or filmed in Deerfield, including television drama Once and Again,[112] comedy Married... with Children[113] and portions of reality show American High.

[118] In 2010, the History Channel's documentary The Crumbling of America mentioned Deerfield in a discussion of frequent blackouts that residents experienced over 2000 times from 2000 to 2009.