Woodstock is a city in (and the county seat of) McHenry County, Illinois, United States. It is located 45 miles northwest of Chicago, making it one of the city's outer-most suburbs. Per the 2020 census, the population was 25,630. The city's historic downtown district and turn-of-the-century town square is anchored by the landmark Woodstock Opera House and the Old McHenry County Courthouse. In 2007 Woodstock was named one of the nation's Dozen Distinctive Destinations by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. History Early days, Centerville Woodstock was originally known as Centerville because of its location at the geographic center of McHenry County. It was chosen as the county seat on September 4, 1843. Early settler Alvin Judd developed a plat for the town, which incorporated a two-acre public square, near which a 2-story frame courthouse and jail were constructed the following year by George C. Dean and Daniel Blair. In 1845, prominent resident Joel Johnson proposed that Centerville be given a more original name, and the town was renamed Woodstock after Johnson's hometown of Woodstock, Vermont. The town was still listed as "Center" on the 1850 Federal Census. In 1852, Woodstock was incorporated as a village with Judd as president. In response to a growing population following the end of the Civil War, Woodstock was incorporated as a city in 1873. John S. Wheat was elected as Woodstock's first mayor. A vital artery for the growing town was the train line to and from Chicago, which allowed for a substantial industrial presence early in the town's history. Eugene V. Debs' prison stay In 1895, Eugene V. Debs served a short federal prison sentence in the Woodstock Jail following the 1894 Pullman labor strike in Chicago. Debs, the former president of the American Railway Union, was held in Woodstock instead of Chicago because federal officials feared that he would be surrounded with too many sympathizers in a Chicago prison and therefore could have still incited further unrest. Debs was instead assigned to a cell in the newly constructed Woodstock Jail, which occupied the lowest floor of the Woodstock Courthouse on the town square. During his time in the jail, Debs received several influential socialist visitors and encountered the works of Karl Marx. He is said to have considered the Woodstock Jail one of the "greatest school[s]," and passed his time reading and writing many letters from his cell. By the time