Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 89% of U.S. towns · #88 of 768 in Illinois. What drives it
19 places in town are on the National Register, among them the Clover Lawn, a National Historic Landmark, and four historic districts with 378 buildings between them. Below: 23 old photos and papers, maps from 1886 on, and the census since 1850.
The Bloomington post office opened in 1831, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1857. Another post office, Blooming Grove (1829), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 89% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Bloomington is more historic than 89% of U.S. towns, #88 of 768 in Illinois. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
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 Bloomington’s 50.6 sits above most of its state (91% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 399 historic buildings outnumber those of 96% 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. One is a National Historic Landmark, the highest tier.
★ Landmark
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
7 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1865North View in
1889PostcardBloomingtonILEaSideSq1910Postcard
1890Adlai Stevenson's residence
1890View in Franklin Park
1900Track to be straightened in the Bloomington yards
1900Track to be straightened in the Bloomington yards![C. & A. [Chicago and Alton Railroad] shops at Bloomington, Ill](https://images.townratings.com/story/4480/28807ad6d995b3c2ab91-s.jpg)
1900C. & A. [Chicago and Alton Railroad] shops at Bloomin…
1908Billy Sunday, Portrait - DPLA - a2be2205d28d727980c47…Postcard
1908Billy Sunday, Portrait - DPLA - a2be2205d28d727980c47…Postcard
1908Billy Sunday, Portrait - DPLA - d476f135e07f1f84ccdeb…Postcard
1908Billy Sunday, Portrait - DPLA - d476f135e07f1f84ccdeb…Postcard
1910Illinois Retail Hardware Assn., Bloomington, Ill., Fe…
1910Illinois Retail Hardware Assn
1910Picnic at Miller Park
1914Panoram #1 of Bloomington, Ill
1914Standard atlas of McLean County, Illinois, including …Map
1914Panoram #1 of Bloomington, Ill
1917Klemm, Overalls, Shirts, Pants, automobile, changing …Postcard
1917Butting, tipping and shelling seed corn Funk Bros. Se…From Wikipedia’s history of Bloomington.
The Bloomington area was at the edge of a large grove occupied by the Kickapoo before the first Euro-American settlers arrived in the early 1820s. Springing from the settlement of Keg Grove, later called Blooming Grove, Bloomington was named as county seat on December 25, 1830, when McLean County was created.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Bloomington, cut from the printed page as they were published.
James Porter was married to Rachel Stockdale in Washington County, Pa., in 1838. They spent 16 years engaged in farming in that county, near Monongahela. In 1854 the family moved to Illinois, coming to Chicago by train and to Bloomington on the Chicago and Alton railroad. In aljout two years they moved to a farm seven miles southeast of Bloomington, in Old Town Township, on the Ireland Grove road; a part of tne family moved to Bloomington in 1865.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereElbert Green Hubbard is born hereIn the archiveNorth View inBuiltClover Lawn is built
Born hereClinton Davisson is born hereIn the archivePostcardBloomingtonILEaSideSq1910In the archiveAdlai Stevenson's residence
BuiltWhite Building is builtIn the archiveTrack to be straightened in the Bloomington yardsIn the archiveIllinois Retail Hardware Assn., Bloomington, Ill., Feb. 10, '10
Born hereGeorge Lincoln Rockwell is born here
In the archiveChicago and Alton Railroad Shops
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bloomington. 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 Bloomington.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1886Sheet 2 of 16Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Bloomington’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 1,594 people in 1850 to 78,680 in 2020, more than tenfold.
18 censuses, 1850–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bloomington’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Bloomington’s post office has been open since 1831. Another post office, Blooming Grove, 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).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Bloomington post office opened in 1831, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1857.
Bloomington is more historic than 89% of U.S. towns, #88 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.
19 listings: 14 buildings, among them the Clover Lawn (a National Historic Landmark since 1975), 4 historic districts with 378 contributing buildings, and 1 structure. 399 historic buildings in all.
15% of Bloomington’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.3 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1982.
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 (14), the Library of Congress (9), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (19), 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1932
1932
1933
