Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 32% of U.S. towns · #539 of 768 in Illinois. What drives it
Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1938 on, and the census since 1880.
Genoa dates its founding to 1836 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1880.
More historic than 32% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Genoa is more historic than 32% of U.S. towns, #539 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 Genoa’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: Wikipedia (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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveHABS ILL,19-GENO.V,1- (sheet 0 of 2) - Perkins Farmhouse, Route 22
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveCloverleaf Tap -- Genoa, Ill., On Route 72 -- 25 Miles West of Elgin (NBY 428918)From Wikipedia’s history of Genoa.
Genoa was settled in 1836 by Thomas Madison, an American Revolutionary War soldier from Ashtabula County, Ohio. He named Genoa after a town of the same name in New York. Genoa was incorporated as a village in 1876 and as a city on September 9, 1911.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Genoa, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Genoa was established as a post-office in 1836. It was named by Madison, its first settler, who was also its first postmaster. He came from Genoa, in New York, and finding here, as there, a Geneva and Batavia, he concluded to carry out the parallel by giving it this name. For many years it was decidedly the most flourishing village in the County.
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.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1930s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Genoa. 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 Genoa.
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 Genoa’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 449 people in 1880 to 5,298 in 2020, more than tenfold.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Genoa’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Genoa itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Genoa’s history is told.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1836, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Genoa’s post office opened in 1837, and the census of 1880 counted 449 people here.
Genoa is more historic than 32% of U.S. towns, #539 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.
12% of Genoa’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.7 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1979.
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 (4), the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, 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 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.
1933
1933
Date?
