Lawndale, Illinois

Lawndale, Illinois
Unincorporated community
The Lawndale grain elevator (with old "Faultless Feed" sign) is the most visible building.
Lawndale, Illinois
Coordinates:
Country	United States
State	Illinois
County	Logan
Elevation	600 ft (200 m)
Time zone	Central (CST) (UTC-6)
• Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP code	61751
Area code(s)	217
GNIS feature ID	411862

Lawndale is a community in Logan County, Illinois, United States which lies northeast of Springfield. The town lies on Interstate 55, part of the old Route 66, between Atlanta and Lincoln. The town lies just south of Kickapoo Creek. The town has one tavern, a grain elevator, and a converted mobile home as its post office.

Lawndale was laid out and platted by Thomas Esten in 1854, the next year after the Alton & Sangamon (now Chicago & Alton) railroad was completed to that point. Thomas Esten came from Massachusetts as agent for an eastern company that had planned to locate a colony in Logan County. He had built a saw mill on Kickapoo Creek close to the present site of Lawndale several years before, had erected a residence and store near there and the locality went by the name of "Kickapoo." His son, Aurelian Esten, afterwards built an elevator at Lincoln. The new town of Lawndale was surveyed June 27, 1854, and originally contained twelve blocks. Ewing's addition in 1864 added seventeen blocks more. A church was built in the town in 1872 by the Methodists and Cumberland Presbyterians jointly. The village has never been incorporated. It is located in East Lincoln township and has a population of about 200.

There are reports that on July 25, 1977, two giant unidentified birds, known in cryptozoology as "thunderbirds," passed over Lawndale. One swooped down and grabbed ten-year-old Marlon Lowe from his backyard, dropping him soon after, most likely due to the loud screams of his mother, who was watching along with six other witnesses. The description of the birds given by witnesses matched that of the Andean condor; however, the Andean condor's talons are not strong enough to lift heavy objects, let alone a human child.