By the early 1840s, settlers had built a dam across Salt Creek and had laid claim to the entire Plum Grove area.

In the early 1950s, Kimball Hill purchased the land intended for the golf course, and began home sales by advertising a floor plan of his basic house in the Chicago Tribune.

Although the response was positive, officials in neighboring Arlington Heights protested, hoping to buy the land themselves for estate homes.

In 1953, the first families moved into the development, which Hill named Rolling Meadows, and 700 houses were sold by 1955, mostly to blue-collar workers.

He also founded the Rolling Meadows Homeowners' Association and donated land for parks, as well as funded the Clearbrook Center, which is a home for individuals with cognitive disabilities that opened in 1955.

Developers saturated the area with apartment buildings, and by 1970, multifamily dwellings made up 35 percent of the total structures in Rolling Meadows.

Rolling Meadows complexes, however, suffered from a series of fires in the decade, prompting the city to become more stringent in their building codes, which had allowed for frame multifamily structures.

In the south end of the city on Golf Road, corporations such as 3Com, Helene Curtis, and Charles Industries established bases in what has become known as the Golden Corridor.

[11] According to the city's 2018 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,[12] the top employers in the city are: The Rolling Meadows Park District was formed in 1958, and has been a finalist for the National Gold Medal award for excellence in parks and recreation management four times.

District 15 schools in Rolling Meadows include Central Road (K–6), Kimball Hill (K–6), Willow Bend (K–6), John G. Conyers Learning Academy (early childhood and multiple needs), Carl Sandburg Jr. High (7-8) which takes students from Thomas Jefferson (K–6) in North Hoffman Estates, Central Road, Kimball Hill and Willow Bend.

Plum Grove Jr. High (7-8) takes students from Stuart R. Paddock (K–6), Pleasant Hill (K–6), Hunting Ridge (K–6) all located in Palatine, Frank C. Whiteley (K–6) in Hoffman Estates, Central Road and Willow Bend.

[15] Pace provides bus service on multiple routes connecting Rolling Meadows to Des Plaines, Schaumburg, and other destinations.