Medinah is an unincorporated community in the state of Illinois and is a northwest suburb of Chicago, located in DuPage County. It is neighbored by the three villages of Roselle, Itasca, and Bloomingdale along old Chicago-Galena highway between Route 19 and 20. History The community of Medinah is named after the Medinah Country Club. In the 1920s, a group of members of the city of Chicago's Medinah Temple (affiliated with the Shriners) moved into the area, then known as Meacham (for the Meacham, Lawrence and Rosenwinkel families). Together, they built a country retreat and 54-hole golf course, aiming to make it the best golf course in North America. The club had 1,500 members in the late 1920s; the Great Depression and World War II drove membership down until the postwar period, when membership recovered to the present-day 600. In 1999, a group led by Jack Roeser and backed by Senator James Philip attempted to bring a charter school to Medinah. The proposed Thomas Jefferson Charter School was met with NIMBY opposition by local residents. The charter school ultimately ended up opening on the northwest side of Chicago busing students from the northwest and west suburbs. Within the last 30 years, the growth of the Chicago metropolitan area has brought more people to the surrounding areas. In spite of this growth, Medinah has remained adamant in retaining its identity, occasionally conflicting with state agencies (such as the Illinois Department of Transportation, or IDOT) and other municipalities with regards to utilities and services. A recent point of contention was the widening of Medinah Road to five lanes—after vocal protests, IDOT agreed to widen the road to only three lanes. Post Office History The first Post office opened as Meacham Illinois in 1874 in a general store. Meacham was named after the town's first settlers, the Meacham family. A never official but commonly used early name for the community was Meacham's Grove, Illinois. The second Post Office was in the train station (1940s) until 1963. Meacham, Illinois' name was changed to Medinah in 1924. Medinah is named after the Medinah Country Club. The third and current Post Office was opened in 1963. Geography Medinah is located about 23 miles west of downtown Chicago. The community center is located just south of the Medinah Metra Milwaukee District West train station at the corner of Medinah Road and Irving Park Road (Illinois Route 19). Medinah