Evanston was created out of the larger geographic unit which was called "Grosse Pointe Territory" in the 1830s and retitled Ridgeville in 1850. After being chosen as the home for Northwestern University, the city was incorporated in 1863, and named after John Evans, the University's founder. During the 1960s Northwestern University changed the city's shoreline with a 74 acre (300,000 m²) lake-fill.

Today, the city is home to Northwestern University and other educational institutions as well as headquarters of Alpha Phi International women's fraternity, Rotary International, the National Lekotek Center, the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, the Sigma Chi Fraternity and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

Evanston is also the birthplace of Tinkertoys and ice cream sundaes.

Evanston, along with many other cities such as Ithaca, New York and Two Rivers, Wisconsin, claims to have invented the ice cream sundae. The store that claimed this was at Dempster Street and Chicago Avenue, but has since been changed into a Homemade Pizza Co. location.