Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 22% of U.S. towns · #619 of 768 in Illinois. What drives it
Most of Bowling Township was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1976. Below: maps from 1912 on and old-book passages.
More historic than 22% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Bowling Township is more historic than 22% of U.S. towns, #619 of 768 in Illinois. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull 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 Bowling Township’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.
Founding year: our sources. 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 first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bowling Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bowling Township. 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 Bowling Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Bowling Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Bowling Township is located in Rock Island County, Illinois. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,414 and it contained 1,455 housing units.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 3,414 to 3,287 (-4%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Bowling Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Our subject spent his boyhood and early manhood in the Village of Milan and on a farm in Bowling Township, and after completing the curriculum prescribed by the village school of that period he entered upon an apprenticeship to the pape!' maker's trade.
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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nobody well known was born in Bowling Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Another post office, Pleasant Ridge, 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.
Bowling Township is more historic than 22% of U.S. towns, #619 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.
6% of Bowling Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.4 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1976.
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 U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System 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.
