The Village includes land in Plainfield and Wheatland Townships. Part of Plainfield is located in Kendall County (Na-Au-Say and Oswego Townships). The population has grown from 4,500 in 1990 to about 30,314 in 2005. Plainfield is also one of the fastest growing communities in Illinois.

Plainfield is identified as the oldest community in Will County because the earliest settlement of Walkers' Grove was established on the banks of the DuPage River by 1828. However, the actual Village of Plainfield was platted immediately north of Walkers' Grove in 1834 by Chester Ingersoll. East Plainfield was platted in 1835 by James Mathers and James Turner. The two fledgling communities were joined by Levi Arnold's Addition in 1845. The community's early prosperity was stunted when the Illinois & Michigan Canal opened in 1848 because the Village was not located along the canal. Located within the Village are numerous Greek Revival, "upright and wing" cottages, a school built in 1847 (which may be the oldest surviving "one-room schoolhouse" in Illinois), and a number of early-19th-century homes. According to a list prepared by the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois, there are homes in Plainfield that rank sixth on a list of the 10 most endangered areas in the state of Illinois. Three structures are listed in the National Register of Historic Places: Plainfield House, Flanders House and a 1928 Standard Oil Gas Station. The Village is the fastest growing in the county.

The Village has established a community Preservation Commission and Historic Preservation Ordinance.

The Plainfield Tornado, an F5 tornado, devastated the Village and neighboring municipalities on August 28, 1990 killing 29 people.

History

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The area was called Walkers' Grove until it was platted as Plainfield in 1834. It was originally settled by a large community of Potawatomi, and the land was later ceded to the United States as part of the Treaty of St. Louis of 1816. Indian Boundary Road aligns with the western border of the tract of land originally ceded.

The earliest Europeans in the area were French fur traders. The first European settler in the area was James Walker, who traveled with his father-in-law, Methodist Reverend Jessie Walker as early as 1826. Reverend Walker evangelized the Potawatomi during his trips.

In 1828, James Walker, in the company of several men, erected a sawmill around which the settlement of Walkers' Grove developed.

Walkers' Grove flourished because of the DuPage River and established routes to Fort Dearborn in Chicago, as well as to Ottawa. Reuben Flagg hauled lumber from Walker's mill to Chicago in order to erect the first two frame structures in the city (P.F.W. Peck House and the George Dole Forwarding House). Chicago also depended upon the settlement for mail and supplies. These are some of the reasons why Plainfield is known as "The Mother of Chicago."

Plainfield was also home to many active Abolitionists who operated stations" on the famed Underground Railroad.

At one time, the two, longest paved highways in the world (Lincoln Highway and U.S. Route 66) crossed in Plainfield. The highways...