Evanston No Stranger to Visiting Presidents

When President Barack Obama arrives at Northwestern to deliver a speech Thursday, he’ll be the first sitting president since Eisenhower to visit Evanston.

But a visit by presidents-to-be or former commanders in chief is less rare. By the city’s count, 11 current, former or future presidents have visited.

They are:

Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, Teddy Roosevelt (who managed to visit both Northwestern and the University of Chicago in a span of 15 hours), Franklin Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

Of course, we have no way of knowing how many as yet unknown future presidents have been to Evanston — perhaps they’re living or studying there right now.

Click here for information about Evanston road closures and parking restrictions on Thursday.

Photo: 1954 article from the Chicago Daily Tribune, provided by the City of Evanston