Homes for sale in
West Dundee.

In 1835, Elder John and Nancy Oatman established a tavern and store that became the core of the community on the Fox River. Two years later the settlers held a lottery to determine who would name the town, and Alexander Gardiner won, naming it Dundee for his Scottish hometown. The two villages remain sister cities. In 1843 Scotsman Allan Pinkerton, the future founder of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, set up shop in Dundee as a cooper, and his cabin became a stop on the Underground Railroad. The town was officially incorporated as West Dundee in 1887, formally splitting from East Dundee across the river.

For decades the village was hemmed in by the river to the east and the D. Hill Nursery to the north and west. Founded in 1855, the Hill Nursery grew to 900 acres and shipped evergreens to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In the 1950s the Hills sold off the Highlands subdivision, which West Dundee annexed in 1956, and the rest of the Hill land became the site for Spring Hill Mall, planned in 1973 and opened in 1980 with Marshall Field's and Sears as anchors. The 1.1-million-square-foot mall reshaped the village's economy and triggered the modern subdivisions west of the mall along Randall Road. Spring Hill closed in recent years and as of October 2025 the site is being cleared for redevelopment. Portions of downtown are listed on the National Register as the Dundee Township Historic District.