Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 76% of U.S. towns · #216 of 768 in Illinois. What drives it
Its Register listings are the El Paso Public Library and the Illinois Central Railroad and Toledo, Peoria, and Western Railroad Freight House. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1888 on, and the census since 1860.
The El Paso post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 76% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, El Paso is more historic than 76% of U.S. towns, #216 of 768 in Illinois. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls 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 El Paso’s 6.9 sits above most of its state (79% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% 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.
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.
1888Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of El Paso.
El Paso was founded by George Gibson and James Wathen. Having traveled to California through Texas previously, Gibson gave it the Spanish name El Paso, either after El Paso County, Texas, the El Paso Mountains in California, or because of a nearby railroad junction.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention El Paso, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The first post office in El Paso Township was kept by Caleb Horn, at his own house, some two or three miles from the village of Kappa. The mail was carried on horseback from Bloomington to Ottawa twice a week. The first store in the township was opened in Kappa by a man who came from Canada, about the time the Illinois Central Railroad was built through the town. The first mill was built by Ives, at the city of El Paso, and mentioned in that part of this history.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The city of El Paso has two very handsome little parks, one in each ward, and each park embraces one full block. They are enclosed by neat fences, are ■ elegantly laid out, filled with beautiful trees, and add materially to the beauty of the city. The name of El Paso was given the city in honor of the township, which bears the same name.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Bank of El Paso in 1883. The old bank of El Paso thin a few days to start the present bank. Many side parties but the intention from the start organized and managed by home men and though for a time it looked as if the necessary was offered to almost every prominent Many who had lost so heavily in the Tompand a few looked at the organization with
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.
In the archiveBird's eye view of the city of El Paso, Woodford County, Illinois 1869
Born hereFulton J. Sheen is born here
In the archiveCampbell House Ticket Offices and Waiting Rooms for IC (Illinois Central) and TPW (Toledo…
In the archiveElPasoILLibrary
Born hereByron Keith is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveCorn Bell Motel, U.S. 51, El Paso, Ill (85737)
In the archiveTownship High School, El Paso, Illinois (NBY 428947)5 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1950s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of El Paso. 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 El Paso.
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 El Paso’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 890 and 2,810 people in every census since 1860.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on El Paso’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
El Paso’s post office has been open since 1857.
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.
The El Paso post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
El Paso is more historic than 76% of U.S. towns, #216 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.
Two places: the El Paso Public Library (listed 1994) and the Illinois Central Railroad and Toledo, Peoria, and Western Railroad Freight House (1994).
34% of El Paso’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.1 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1957.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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.
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