Founding year: the first Hillsboro post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Hillsboro’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Hillsboro is more historic than 89% of U.S. towns, #87 of 768 in Illinois. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its age lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Hillsboro’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 Hillsboro’s 8.6 sits above most of its state (82% 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 A− to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.7 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 Hillsboro’s past
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.
The community was founded in 1823 and incorporated on March 26, 1913.
There is some doubt about the origin of the city's name. The local terrain is quite hilly, as a result of the drainage of the Shoal Creek watershed, causing widespread belief that this is the name's source. Alternatively, there is the belief that it was named for Hillsborough, North Carolina, the home of some of the early settlers, including Hiram Rountree and John Nussman.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Hillsboro post office opened in 1823, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Hillsboro rank for history?
Hillsboro is more historic than 89% of U.S. towns, #87 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.
What is on the National Register in Hillsboro?
4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Hayward-Hill House (listed 1980, the first). 5 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Hillsboro?
25% of Hillsboro’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.7 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1963.
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 (4), 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 and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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