Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 91% of U.S. towns · #62 of 768 in Illinois. What drives it
7 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 1,915 buildings. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1891 on, and the census since 1910.
The Berwyn post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1908. Another post office, Lavergne (1891), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 91% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Berwyn is more historic than 91% of U.S. towns, #62 of 768 in Illinois. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
Few Illinois towns list much on the Register (a typical Illinois town has 0.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Berwyn’s 346 sits above most of its state (98% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 1,922 historic buildings outnumber those of 99% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Berwyn’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Berwyn. 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 Berwyn.
From Wikipedia’s history of Berwyn.
Before being settled, the land that is now Berwyn was traversed by Native American trails. The most important trails converged near the Chicago portage, and two notable routes crossed what is today Berwyn. A branch of the Trail to Green Bay crossed Berwyn at what is now Riverside Drive, and the Ottawa Trail spanned the southern end of the city.
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 archiveBerwyn, Illinois 1895 Sanborn Map Composite
In the archiveAerial View of Suburban Chicago, Berwyn, 1925 (NBY 5308)BuiltBerwyn Health Center is built
Born hereLeah Poulos is born here
Born hereSondra Radvanovsky is born here
In the archive19990905 22 BNSF Amtrak3 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2018Untitled photo
2018Untitled photo
2018Untitled photo
2018IC 2462 (Blue Devil) closeup
2018GECX 2039
2018Amtrak 187 and 176
20184 BNSF engines on an intermodal
2017Office Depot
2016J. Sterling Morton West High School
2016Buona Berwyn 1981
2014Proksa Park Playground
201320130406 07 Metra Pub Crawl @ George's Tavern in
201220120411 05 Metra, Harlem Ave
201120110520 07 Metra
2010Carl Sandburg train
2009Berwyn IL 2009 reference mapMap
2008Welcome To Berwyn Sign
2007Berwyn car spindle
2006Lincoln Highway - The SpindleNo 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 Berwyn’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 5,841 people in 1910 to 57,250 in 2020, 9 times over.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Berwyn’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Berwyn’s post office has been open since 1891. Another post office, Lavergne, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Berwyn post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1908.
Berwyn is more historic than 91% of U.S. towns, #62 of 768 in Illinois. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
7 listings: 6 buildings, among them the Arthur J. Dunham House (listed 1982, the first), and 1 historic district, the Central Berwyn Bungalow Historic District, with 1,915 contributing buildings. 1,922 historic buildings in all.
61% of Berwyn’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.3 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1938.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (22), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (7), 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.
1999