Lombard has a way of making ordinary evenings feel like an occasion, and seniors looking to retire in Illinois will find few places in DuPage County on par with the village’s neighborly feel and open-air charm.
Here, string lights arc over the brick pavers of Main Street downtown, planters bedeck the curb in color, and a black metal arch marks the corner where St. Charles Road crosses through. Classic cars line the block for a cruise night. At the station, a Metra train drops off passengers—locals back from an afternoon in Chicago, just 20 miles away.
Lombard’s scale makes local life approachable for retirees, and its location provides easy access to a range of settings, urban sprawl and expansive nature included.
Below are the top reasons Lombard earns its place as a favorite among retirees.
Key Highlights
- A Historic Downtown with a Full Calendar: The St. Charles Road and Main Street district hosts cruise nights, summer concerts, Restaurant Week, and a roster of independent shops and restaurants.
- Parks, Gardens, and Trails: Lilacia Park, Lombard Common, nearby forest preserves, and two rails-to-trails routes support walking, cycling, and time outdoors across the seasons.
- A Well-Connected DuPage County Base: The Metra Union Pacific West line, plus I-88, I-355, and I-290, links Lombard to Chicago, Oak Brook and Yorktown shopping, and regional health care.
- A Favorable Tax Setting for Seniors. Illinois exempts Social Security, pensions, and 401(k) and IRA withdrawals from state income tax.
- An Established Retiree Population. Close to 18% of Lombard residents are 65 or older.
1. A Historic Downtown with a Full Local Calendar
Lombard's downtown wears its history well. Along St. Charles Road and Main Street, brick sidewalks run past century-old storefronts now filled with independent gift shops, vintage finds, and neighborhood tables. One of them, Babcock's Grove House, plates seasonal Midwestern cooking inside a pre-Civil War building that once served as the Lombard Hotel. The 1837 Sheldon Peck Homestead, restored by the Lombard Historical Society, stands as a verified stop on the National Park Service's Underground Railroad Network to Freedom and welcomes visitors for programming.
The train station sits right in the mix, so a morning errand and an afternoon in the city begin from the same corner.
The city’s calendar infuses the mix of shopping, dining, and picture-perfect scenery with a close-knit community mindset. Neighbors mingle at the Tuesday Lombard Farmers Market, perusing homegrown produce and handcrafted goods to the tune of live local music performances. Restaurant Week hands residents a delicious excuse to work through the local menu. The Lombard Community Building keeps its own steady beat of senior matinees, socials and lectures, an annual resource fair, and civic gatherings.
For retirees, that full calendar means an active social life with minimal effort required.
Lombard Event Highlights
- Lombard Annual Spooktacular Event: A downtown Halloween celebration along St. Charles Road with trick-or-treating, a costume contest, a scavenger hunt, and live entertainment—an easy outing when family visits.
- DuPage County Fair: The county's long-running summer fair of livestock, rides, music, and fair food, held just up the road at the fairgrounds in nearby Wheaton.
- Lombard’s Outdoor Vintage Day (LOV’D): A recurring open-air vintage market on South Park Avenue, pairing dozens of curated vendors with live bands and a street-fair mood.
- Lombard Chamber Annual Golf Outing: A fall outing on the course that brings neighbors and local businesses together each October.
- Annual Lilac Ball: The chamber's spring gala honoring the Lilac Court, an evening of dinner and dancing during Lilac Time.
2. Parks, Gardens, and Trails for Every Season
The open air that defines a Lombard evening carries into the daytime, too. Step off the pavement, and the village turns green. Its centerpiece is Lilacia Park, an 8.5-acre garden of curving flagstone paths, open lawns, and a small pond, laid out a century ago by Jens Jensen, a Prairie School contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright. Colonel William Plum and his wife, Helen, planted the first lilacs here in the early 1900s and left the grounds to the public in 1927.
Each May, the Lilac Time festival crowns a queen and sends a parade up Main Street. The park joined the National Register of Historic Places in 2019, admission stays free, and the gates stay open from dawn to dusk all year.
The parkland keeps going past the garden. Lombard Common spreads out with open lawns and room for a game or a picnic, and the DuPage County forest preserves widen the map further. Two rails-to-trails paths, the Illinois Prairie Path and the Great Western Trail, follow old rail lines through leafy corridors, level and inviting for a walk or a ride. Four full seasons keep the scenery moving, from spring bloom to autumn color, and give an outdoor habit somewhere to go every month of the year.
3. A Well-Connected DuPage County Base
The Metra Union Pacific West line runs from the Lombard station straight to Ogilvie Transportation Center downtown, and I-290, I-88, and I-355 put O'Hare, Naperville, and most of the metro within a comfortable drive. The city becomes a day trip: an exhibit downtown, an evening show, or a family celebration, with the train handling the ride both ways.
Closer in, the choices stay wide. Oakbrook Center and Lombard's own Yorktown Center cover everything from a splurge to a grocery run, and Yorktown doubles as a regional Pace bus hub. Health care sits minutes away through Endeavor Health, anchored by nearby Elmhurst Hospital and a health center on Main Street in Lombard, with Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital just over in Downers Grove. Care of that scope close to home turns routine appointments into a short outing and opens a larger system when a specialist enters the picture.
4. The Practical Case and a Community Built for Retirees
Illinois exempts Social Security benefits, public and private pensions, and 401(k) and IRA withdrawals from state income tax, an advantage that adds up year after year. Property taxes run high across DuPage County, so that line rewards a close read, though it lightens for residents who leave homeownership behind.
Lombard also comes with retirees already in the picture. Close to 18% of residents are 65 or older, a share above the national figure, and it shows in the senior programming, the health resources, and the social calendar built for this stage.
That head start is one reason the village has long made room for senior living that keeps the good parts of local life intact. Beacon Hill, a Life Care community in Lombard, sits close to the downtown, the gardens, and the trails, offering independent living with priority access to on-site care should you need it, all as part of the nonprofit Lifespace Communities family.
The rest stays yours to fill: a morning on the Prairie Path, an afternoon downtown, a train into the city, and the gates of Lilacia Park open whenever the mood strikes.
Ready to discover what Lombard has to offer? Schedule a tour at Beacon Hill and visit the village for yourself.
