Elmhurst is a city in DuPage and Cook counties in the U.S. state of Illinois.

Members of the Potawatomi Native American people, who settled along Salt Creek just south of where the city would develop, are the earliest known settlers of the Elmhurst area.

At what would become Elmhurst City Centre, a native of Ohio named Gerry Bates established a community on a tract of "treeless land" in 1842.

In 1845, the community was officially named Cottage Hill when a post office was established.

[1] The land for Elmhurst University was gifted by prominent resident Thomas Barbour Bryan.

[8][9] Elmhurst was incorporated as a village in 1882,[1] with a population between 723 and 1,050, and legal boundaries of St. Charles Road to North Avenue, and one half mile west and one quarter mile east of York Street.

[5] Since 1964, it has been home to Elmhurst CRC, one of the largest congregations of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

The city is home to the headquarters of Sunshine Biscuits and McMaster-Carr Supply Co.

It is a four-year private liberal arts college affiliated with the United Church of Christ.

[30][31] Elmhurst was previously served by the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad, an electric interurban rail line.