Founding year: the first Groveland Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Groveland Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Groveland Township is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #384 of 768 in Illinois. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Groveland 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 Groveland Township’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.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.9 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 Groveland Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Groveland Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1905Peoria 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 Groveland Township.
Timeline
Groveland Township, 1834 to 1905
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Groveland Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Groveland is an unincorporated community in Tazewell County, Illinois, United States. It has a small library, a school which is now a church, gas station, war memorial, country store with restaurant and chapel, churches, Pyramid Printing Inc. and a handful of other small businesses. It has approximately 1400 residents and is located near Pekin and Morton. It lies within ten miles of Peoria, near Springfield Road and Edgewater Drive, which is Illinois State Route 98.
Its first post office opened in 1836. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 19,526 to 18,854 (-3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
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.
The Groveland Township post office opened in 1836, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Groveland Township rank for history?
Groveland Township is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #384 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.
How old are the homes in Groveland Township?
12% of Groveland Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.9 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1966.
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 Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
