Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 80% of U.S. towns · #180 of 768 in Illinois. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Berger-Kiel House and the George Draser Jr. House. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1912 on, and the census since 1860.
Mascoutah dates its founding to 1837 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1860.
More historic than 80% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Mascoutah is more historic than 80% of U.S. towns, #180 of 768 in Illinois. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 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 Mascoutah’s 5.7 sits above most of its state (77% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 5 historic buildings outnumber those of 70% 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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Mascoutah. 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 Mascoutah.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveMascoutah Kennel Club dog show 1901
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveIllinois - Mascoutah through McLeansboro
In the archiveIllinois - MiscellaneousFrom Wikipedia’s history of Mascoutah.
The town of Mascoutah was originally established in 1837 as Mechanicsburg. This was disputed with the establishment of a Post Office; the inhabitants were informed that another township in Illinois was already named Mechanicsburg. The town was renamed after the Mascouten tribe, and was officially designated Mascoutah in 1839.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Mascoutah, cut from the printed page as they were published.
MASCOUTAH Samuel Dixon built the first house withm the limits of the present town of Mascoutah. Dixon was a hunter and lived just south of where the Postel Mills now stand. The town was laid out on the sixth of April, i8j7 by T. J. Krafft and John Flanagan. It contained six blocks of different sizes and was called Mechanicsburg. After the town was laid out Samuel Mitchell built a log cabin and established a saw mill .
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The first school was established in the town of Mascoutah about 1840. In 1872 Edwin Auerswald, as principal of the Mascoutah public school was empowered to introduce a "system of improved gradation and to adopt and fix a course of instruction suitable to the requirements of a good school and commensurate with the demands of modern education."
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
STRASSBUEG Was laid out by Joseph Moll and others, March 19th, 1857, and contains ten lots ; it is situated two and a half miles north of Mascoutah, on sections eighteen and nineteen, on a small tributary of the Silver Creek ; its location was too near Mascoutah to ever grow to much of a village without any railroad facilities.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Steel started an improvement near where Joshua Clark settled, about the same time. Brice Virgin, a native of Kentucky, settled on section six, a short distance south-west of the present town of Mascoutah, in 1810. He resided here until his death. His sons, William, Hiram and Brice, settled in the same vicinity, and raised families. William Virgin served in the war of 1812, and was in the government employ as a ranger until 1815, and was also in the Black Hawk war. He died on the same section where his father
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.
3 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Mascoutah’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.
Grew from 2,076 people in 1860 to 8,754 in 2020, 4 times over.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Mascoutah’s Wikipedia page.
Mascoutah’s post office has been open since 1838. Another post office, Mechanicsburg, 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).
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.
In 1837, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Mascoutah’s post office opened in 1836, and the census of 1860 counted 2,076 people here.
Mascoutah is more historic than 80% of U.S. towns, #180 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.
Two places: the Berger-Kiel House (listed 1999) and the George Draser Jr. House (2000).
13% of Mascoutah’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.6 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1984.
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), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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.
1917
1933
1933
