Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1903.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Johnston City’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Johnston City is more historic than 55% of U.S. towns, #361 of 768 in Illinois. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Johnston City’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 Johnston City’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 (±14.1 points). Two sources give 1894.
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 →
What stands out about Johnston City’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 7,137 in 1920; 3,384 people lived here in 2020.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Johnston City’s Wikipedia page.
On the map
Johnston City on the map, 1909 to 1963
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Johnston City. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1909West Frankfort 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 Johnston City.
Johnston City was founded in 1894 as a stop along the Chicago, Paducah and Memphis Railroad (later part of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois), and named for the contracting firm that constructed the railroad.
The eastern part of the city was originally known as Jeffersonville. It was surveyed in 1853. During the American Civil War it was a prosperous village. The post office was established in 1852 under the name Lake Creek. It was moved to Johnston City in 1903 but it was not until several years after that that Jeffersonville was fully amalgamated into Johnston City.
Passages that mention Johnston City, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Williamson County, Illinois, in the World War1919 · page 358Read the page →
Read the text
'T'HIS large business institution was organized in 1912 and was later re-organized with John Visconti of Carterville as president and J. H. Colombo of Johnston City, secretary and treasurer. The Johnston City Bottling Company has a very large and ever increasing business.
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.
Timeline
Johnston City, 1880 to 1946
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
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.
In 1894, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Johnston City’s post office opened in 1903, and the census of 1900 counted 787 people here.
How does Johnston City rank for history?
Johnston City is more historic than 55% of U.S. towns, #361 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 Johnston City?
45% of Johnston City’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±14.1 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1956.
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 (10), 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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