Founding year: the first Blue Mound post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Blue Mound’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Blue Mound is more historic than 53% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Blue Mound’s overall grade.
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 Blue Mound’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (28% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±9.6 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Blue Mound’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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.
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
The story so far
Blue Mound, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Blue Mound yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Blue Mound is a village in Macon County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,133 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Decatur, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Its first post office opened in 1861. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,158 to 1,133 (-2%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Blue Mound, 1880–1930
Passages that mention Blue Mound, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Centennial history of Decatur and Macon county1930 · page 448Read the page →
Read the text
The village of Blue Mound was laid out in 1870, and was incorporated Feb. 17, 1876. The land on which the village was platted was owned by Dr. Goltra. The first house in the village was built by William Cummings, but it was erected in 1861, before there was any village. In 1870 O. Ullrich & Bros, moved a store, which had stQod about a mile to the north, down to the new town. The same year the postoffice was established and William Clements became postmaster.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Macon County, Illinois1880 · page 191Read the page →
Read the text
Blue Mound, where he erected a cabin, broke some land, fenced it and began farming. He brought with him a small-sized family. Wyett Cherry who was an early settler in this locality, is still residin'! a short distance north-west of the town of Blue Mound.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Macon County, Illinois1880 · page 41Read the page →
Read the text
of the State, as the multiplication of mounds in those regions attest, the land in this portion of the State was yet under water. There are in the county several natural mounds, of which the one near the town of Blue Mound south of Decatur fourteen miles is probably the most prominent. It covers an area of some fifteen acres, and rises to an altitude of sixty feet above the flat surface of the prairie. This mass has been found by excavation to be composed mostly of gravel and sand, proving it, beyond doubt, to belong to
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.
Timeline
Blue Mound, 1861 to 1972
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Blue Mound post office opened in 1861, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Blue Mound rank for history?
Blue Mound is more historic than 53% of U.S. towns. 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.
How old are the homes in Blue Mound?
37% of Blue Mound’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.6 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1959.
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 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.
