Gene & Jude's

The Thirsty Whale, which opened in 1971, was a rock music club at 8800 Grand Avenue, River Grove, Illinois. It brought in acts like Blue Öyster Cult, Molly Hatchet, Black Oak Arkansas, Extreme, Foghat, Johnny Winter, Mother Love Bone (who played their only Chicago show at the Whale), and Peter Criss. Survivor performed here monthly early in their career. Future Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Cheap Trick played there regularly in the late 1970s, promoting the release of their first two albums, Black & White and In Color, respectively. The club began to be a showcase for local Chicago area hard rock and heavy metal bands such as Enuff Z'nuff, D'Molls, 7th heaven band and others from the mid-80s through its closing in 1996. The height of the club was during the mid-1980s. Young bands would have the opportunity to open for national acts to grow their fan base and sometimes the attention of major record companies. Although the Thirsty Whale was a small club in size it had its own scene and from it grew a local music magazine, The Chicago Rocker, which was founded by Tony LaBarabra, one of the clubs many booking agents over the years. Chicago never had the metal scene that Los Angeles had but The Thirsty Whale was always a stopover for most bands playing the arenas in Chicago. If you were to ask a local rock musician from this era, they would say "Without The Thirsty Whale, there wouldn't have been a rock scene in Chicago".The club closed its doors on June 2, 1996, and was demolished to make way for a BP gas station and McDonald's. LaBarbara has hosted a "Thirsty Whale Reunion" where some of the bands that played The at the Whale, back in its heyday, held a one-night-only reunion.

St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery & Mausoleums is located at Belmont and Cumberland Avenues, in River Grove, Illinois.The cemetery was consecrated in 1904.

River Grove is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 10,227 at the 2010 census.

The Dohrmann-Buckman House is a historic house at 8455 W. Grand Avenue in River Grove, Illinois. The house was built in 1875 for original owner Frederick Dohrmann. It has a gable front plan with an Italianate design that includes a front porch with columns and a frieze, a glazed transom above the entrance, and segmental arched windows on the second floor. River Forest village clerk Henry Buckman and his wife Bertha acquired the house in 1890; the couple placed two additions on the house and built a barn on the property. The house remained in the Buckman family until 1992, when it became a historic house museum.The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 24, 1995.

River Grove is a station on Metra's North Central Service and Milwaukee District West Line in River Grove, Illinois. The station is 11.4 miles (18.3 km) away from Union Station, the southern terminus of the lines. In Metra's zone-based fare system, River Grove is in zone C. As of 2018, River Grove is the 138th busiest of Metra's 236 non-downtown stations, with an average of 333 weekday boardings.As of April 2022, on the Milwaukee District West Line, River Grove is served by 14 trains in each direction on weekdays, by all 12 trains in each direction on Saturdays, and by all nine trains in each direction on Sundays. On the North Central Service, River Grove is served by five inbound trains and four outbound trains on weekdays only. West of the station, the North Central Service diverges from the ex-Milwaukee Road's Chicago-Omaha-Kansas City mainline at the B-12 junction in Franklin Park, Illinois and proceeds north on the Canadian National Railway's Waukesha Subdivision, with the Milwaukee District West Line continuing to the west. Inbound North Central trains bypass the next six MD-West stations (not including the Mars station) east of River Grove, running nonstop to Western Avenue. The station is located across the tracks from Arnold Avenue on the corner of Illinois State Route 171, and is surrounded by the local St. Joseph's Cemetery. It is also located across from Elmwood Cemetery.

The Cernan Earth and Space Center is a public planetarium on the campus of Triton College in the Chicago suburb of River Grove. It is named for astronaut Eugene Cernan (1934-2017), who flew aboard the Gemini 9 and Apollo 10 missions and, as commander of Apollo 17, was the last astronaut to leave his footprints on the Moon. The Cernan Center's 93-seat 44-foot-diameter (13 m) dome theater housing a Konica-Minolta Super MediaGlobe II fulldome digital projector, a Voyager V-17OWC laser projection system, and numerous auxiliary projectors. Using this equipment, the Cernan Center presents a wide range of programs to persons of all ages who attend its special school and group presentations and weekend public programs. One Saturday night each month, the Cernan Center offers a Monthly Skywatch program that presents the latest news and discoveries in the fields of astronomy, space science, and geoscience. The Cernan Center also features Earth- and space-related exhibits, the Friends of the Cernan Center membership program, and the Star Store gift shop.

Triton College is a public community college in River Grove, Illinois.

The 5th congressional district of Illinois covers parts of Cook and DuPage counties, as of the 2011 redistricting which followed the 2010 census. All or parts of Chicago, Elmhurst, Elmwood Park, Franklin Park, Hinsdale, La Grange Park, Norridge, Northlake, River Grove, Schiller Park, and Oakbrook Terrace are included.It has been represented by Democrat Mike Quigley since the April 2009 special election.

Belmont Avenue (also known as Franklin Park – Belmont Avenue) is a station on Metra's North Central Service in Franklin Park, Illinois. The station is 15.8 miles (25.4 km) away from Union Station, the southern terminus of the line. In Metra's zone-based fare system, Belmont Avenue is in zone C. As of 2018, Belmont Avenue is the 224th busiest of Metra's 236 non-downtown stations, with an average of 24 weekday boardings. Belmont Avenue was opened on January 30, 2006, along with three other new stations on the North Central Service.

Elmwood Cemetery is located at 2905 Thatcher Avenue, in River Grove, Illinois. It features a cenotaph of comedian John Belushi, although his remains are buried elsewhere. However, his mother, Agnes Belushi, is buried in the same location.

Elmwood Park High School, or EPHS, is a public four-year high school located in Elmwood Park, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Elmwood Park Community Unit School District 401.

Guerin Preparatory High School was a private, Roman Catholic high school in River Grove, Illinois, United States. It was located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. Guerin was established in 1962 as Mother Theodore Guerin High School, an all-girls school, by the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. The sisters named the school after their congregation's foundress, Saint Mother Theodore Guerin. The school was renamed when it became coeducational in 2004 and absorbed the students from the all-male Holy Cross High School after that school closed. Holy Cross High School had been opened in 1961. Guerin closed permanently after the 2019–20 academic year due to declining enrollment, increased need in financial aid for students, and lower than expected fundraising results.