Founding year: the first Curran Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 2005.
History grade
What drives Curran Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Curran Township is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Curran Township’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 Curran Township’s 30.8 sits above most of its state (89% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 5 historic buildings outnumber those of 70% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±12.5 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata gives 2005.
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 Curran Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Curran Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Curran is a village in Curran Township, Sangamon County, Illinois, United States. It was incorporated in 2005. As of the 2020 census, Curran had a population of 213. Curran is located a few miles west of Springfield and is part of the Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Its first post office opened in 1861. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 1,586 in 2010, 1,566 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Curran Township in 1912
Passages that mention Curran Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Sangamon County1912 · page 1632Read the page →
Read the text
to work for his father until he attained his majority. After his marriage, he began farming on a portion of the homestead, thus continuing in Curran Township until 1874, when he moved to a farm in Champaign County, returning to the old homestead in 1881. The latter continued to be his home until 1899, when he retired to Springfield, and has made this city
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Sangamon County1912 · page 1382Read the page →
Read the text
spent six years in Menard County, and in 1881 rented land in Dewitt County. In 1901 he returned to Sangamon County and rented land in Curran Township, from a Mrs. King, having for several years rented land in Dewitt County from Mr. King, thus renting eighteen years from this family. In 1906 he purchased eighty acres of the farm he now occupies, on which he has
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.
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Curran Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1924Waverly sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Curran Township.
On the National Register
1 historic place in Curran Township
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
The Curran Township post office opened in 1861, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 2005.
How does Curran Township rank for history?
Curran Township is more historic than 71% 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.
What is on the National Register in Curran Township?
One place: the Caldwell Farmstead (listed 1984).
How old are the homes in Curran Township?
21% of Curran Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±12.5 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1971.
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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
