Six mines, one incorporation, one soil story
Chandler started as a small settlement called Lee in the early 19th century, sitting on the eastern edge of the Illinois Basin coal field. Six different underground mines operated in and around town over nearly a century, the longest-running for 40 years before closing in 1937, and once mining wound down by the mid-1940s, homes went up quickly on the newly available ground -- Chandler's population more than doubled within five years, and the town incorporated in 1953.
Fast-built postwar homes over old mine ground
That rapid, mid-century construction boom means a lot of Chandler's housing stock sits on ground that was mine land within living memory, built quickly once it opened up rather than settled over generations. A foundation evaluation for a Chandler property should treat that construction timeline as a real variable -- postwar footings, older mine workings below, and decades of settlement since are all part of the same picture.