Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Carlinville Chapter House · Photo: Boscophotos · CC BY-SA 3.0Its Register listings are the Carlinville Chapter House and the John C. Anderson House. Its Register listings are the Carlinville Chapter House and the John C. Anderson House. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1925 on, and the census since 1880.
The Carlinville Township post office opened in 1830, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1865.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Carlinville 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 Carlinville Township.
From Wikipedia’s history of Carlinville Township.
Carlinville is named for Thomas Carlin, seventh governor of Illinois, who as a member of the state legislature was instrumental in creating Macoupin County.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
3 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1990s. 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 Carlinville Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Between 3,117 and 5,917 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Carlinville Township’s Wikipedia page.
Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.
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 Carlinville Township post office opened in 1830, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1865.
3 listings: 2 buildings, among them the Carlinville Chapter House (listed 1980, the first). 5 historic buildings in all.
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 (6), the Library of Congress (2), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) 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.
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