Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1891 on, and the census since 1920.
The Ila post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1910. Another post office, Opossum (1880), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Ila’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Ila. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Ila.
From Wikipedia’s history of Ila.
Ila was first settled in the mid-1800s by farmers from North Carolina and Virginia. The community became an agricultural one and growing corn, cotton, soybeans, wheat, and other crops.
The Georgia General Assembly incorporated the Town of Ila in 1910. Ila is a name derived from the Choctaw language meaning "dead".
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveGeorgia [Effingham County (part) - Newton County (part)One decade in the archive so far: the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Ila’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 202 and 350 people in every census since 1920.
11 censuses, 1920–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Ila’s Wikipedia page.
Ila’s post office has been open since 1882. Another post office, Opossum, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Ila post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1910.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (5), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2020
2020
2020
2020