Naperville, the oldest town in DuPage County, was settled by Captain Joseph Naper. Soon after, in the late 1830s, settlers of German ancestry came from Pennsylvania to transform the prairie into farmland. Although today's city is at the center of a "research and high-technology corridor" and has been cited as one of the fastest-growing suburbs in the nation, Naperville retains something of the atmosphere of a small town with its core of large Victorian houses and a beautiful historic district. The downtown shopping area features more than 100 shops and restaurants in historic buildings; it adjoins the Riverwalk, a 3 1/2-mile winding brick pathway along the DuPage River.