Elmhurst & Lombard

Elmhurst and Lombard are neighboring DuPage County suburbs on the Union Pacific West line, about 15 miles west of the Loop. Elmhurst is the more affluent of the two, with a City Centre downtown of restaurants and shops around its Metra station, Elmhurst University, Elmhurst Hospital and an art museum built around a Mies van der Rohe house. Lombard is the Lilac Village, named for Lilacia Park’s 200-plus lilac varieties and the Lilac Time festival each May, with Yorktown Center mall on its south side and a downtown on St. Charles Road that has been slower to fill in. Both are family towns of postwar houses and newer teardowns.

Where it is

On the map, Elmhurst sits between Oak Brook and Addison, bounded by I-290 on the east and Route 83 on the west, with the downtown at York Street and the tracks; Lombard is directly west, between Elmhurst and Glen Ellyn, with Yorktown at Butterfield Road and Highland Avenue. Metra’s Union Pacific West line stops at Elmhurst and Lombard, about 25 to 30 minutes to Ogilvie. I-290, I-294 and I-88 all pass within a few miles, and North Avenue, St. Charles Road and Roosevelt Road are the east-west arterials.

What to know if you’re moving here

Elmhurst is the pricier, more finished town; Lombard has more house for the money and Yorktown’s sales tax base.

• Housing is single-family homes and condos built from the 1900s on, with typical prices of roughly $300,000 to $1.2 million as a broad editorial estimate as of September 2026.
• Parking is driveways and garages; Elmhurst’s City Centre has metered street parking and a public garage.
• Public schools are Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205 (York High School) and Lombard District 44 feeding Glenbard Township High School District 87 (Glenbard East).
• DuPage County property taxes apply, and Elmhurst’s are among the higher bills in the county for its house sizes.
• Both towns have a Metra stop in the middle of downtown, and the ride to Ogilvie is under half an hour.
• The drawback is flooding on some Elmhurst blocks near Salt Creek, and Lombard’s downtown, which is still finding its footing.

What to do if you’re visiting

Elmhurst City Centre is a block from the Metra stop; Lilacia Park is a block from Lombard’s.

• Anyone who lives here knows Elmhurst Art Museum on Cottage Hill Avenue is built around the McCormick House, a 1952 Mies van der Rohe home, in Wilder Park.
• Coffee, cocktails and a laptop-friendly room are the draw at Brewpoint Coffee‘s Craft cafe on North York Street, the flagship of an Elmhurst roaster that started in 2014.
• Spring Road, south of downtown Elmhurst, has Lezza Spumoni & Desserts, where a family has made spumoni since 1905 and fills cannoli to order, and Roberto’s Ristorante, an Italian dining room with Tuscan murals and party rooms for up to 150.
• Lilacia Park on Parkside Avenue in Lombard blooms with lilacs and tulips in May, when the village holds Lilac Time and a parade.
• Across from the park, Babcock’s Grove House at Park Avenue and St. Charles Road has cooked scratch comfort food since 2016 and sells a daily pie by the slice after 4 p.m., with the owners’ Lilac League cocktail bar next door.
• Out on East Roosevelt Road, Noon Whistle Brewing has poured beer since December 2014 and now runs a pizza kitchen and beer garden with trivia and music bingo most weeks.