Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 96% of U.S. towns. What drives it
1 place in town is on the National Register. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1924 on, and the census since 1850.
The Griggsville Township post office opened in 1833, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Marysville (1870) and Maysville (1878), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 96% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Griggsville Township is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its age lowest.
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 Griggsville Township’s 520 sits above most of its state (99% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 81 historic buildings outnumber those of 88% 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.
Peaked at 1,515 in 1880; 1,097 people lived here in 2020.
17 censuses, 1850–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Griggsville Township’s Wikipedia page.
Two other post offices 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).
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveGriggsville 1847
In the archiveWeagly House
In the archiveGriggsville Square
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyFrom Wikipedia’s history of Griggsville Township.
In 1833, Griggsville was platted by pioneers Richard Griggs (for whom the town is named), Joshua Stanford, and Nathan W. Jones. On September 10, 1872, Griggsville was officially incorporated.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
3 decades in the archive, from the 1840s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Griggsville 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 Griggsville Township.
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 Griggsville 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.
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 Griggsville Township post office opened in 1833, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Griggsville Township is more historic than 96% 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.
32% of Griggsville Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.6 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1966.
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), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) 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.
1852
1907
2005
