Carol Stream is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. Incorporated on January 5, 1959, and named after the developer's daughter, Carol Stream had a population of 40,438 as of the 2000 US census.

Name and founding
A common misconception is that the municipality of Carol Stream was named for a local minor waterway (There are several in the community. The largest is Klein Creek). In fact, Carol Stream may be the only community in America which took its name from the first and last names of a living person: Carol Stream, the daughter of its founder Jay Stream.

Jay Stream, a military veteran who had previously...

Carol Stream is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. Incorporated on January 5, 1959, and named after the developer's daughter, Carol Stream had a population of 40,438 as of the 2000 US census.

Name and founding
A common misconception is that the municipality of Carol Stream was named for a local minor waterway (There are several in the community. The largest is Klein Creek). In fact, Carol Stream may be the only community in America which took its name from the first and last names of a living person: Carol Stream, the daughter of its founder Jay Stream.

Jay Stream, a military veteran who had previously sold insurance and ready-mix concrete, was in the mid-1950s heading Durable Construction Company. He became frustrated with red tape while negotiating a planned 350-400 home subdivision in nearby Naperville, Illinois. A Naperville clerk reportedly advised Stream to'build your own town'', and in 1957, Stream began buying unincorporated farmland outside Wheaton. As construction progressed, Stream's daughter Carol, then 14, was nearly killed in an automobile accident in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, not far from where the Stream's summer home was located in Twin Lakes.

On August 27, 1957, Carol and three friends were returning from Racine, Wisconsin in a 1949 Studebaker. While attempting to cross US 41, the car was struck in the right rear corner, killing the passenger seated there. Carol was ejected through the windshield and into a utility pole. Neurosurgeons at Kenosha Memorial Hospital said the comatose girl might never awaken or, if she did, would likely be severely handicapped. On advice of the doctors that her recovery might improve with good news, Jay decided to name the new community in her honor. After four months in a coma, Carol regained consciousness. Learning the new village bore her full name, Carol said she thought it'odd and silly'at first (as she told a Chicago Tribune reporter in 1991).

Carol Stream (and therefore the city) was nearly named Jacqueline Stream, but her parents changed her name to Carol when her due date fell near Christmas. She never lived in her namesake community but moved from Wheaton, Illinois to Arizona in 1957 following the end of her parents marriage. She still participates in municipal celebrations and rides in parades during anniversary celebrations of the municipality's 1959 incorporation, and is frequently asked for autographs when she is in town. She works in a bank. Jay Stream is also commemorated in the town - his name is on the middle school. He died on January 22, 2006.