Founding year: the first Mendota post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Mendota’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Mendota is more historic than 42% of U.S. towns, #456 of 768 in Illinois. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Mendota’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 Mendota’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 (±4.8 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 Mendota’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
In summer of 1853, the Illinois Central Railroad was completed and crossed the existing Chicago and Aurora Railroad. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad completed the crossing at the present site of Mendota. By the following year, the population had grown to more than 1,000 and the town was home to saloons, hotels, and various shops. The town was incorporated as a village in 1855 and reincorporated as a town in 1859. By 1860, the town was also home to churches of 5 denominations.
Passages that mention Mendota, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of LaSalle County, Illinois1877 · page 479Read the page →
Read the text
Blackstone, resident engineer on the railroad, laid off the original town of Mendota. The place was familiarly called the Junction, but as the railroad stations located on new territory that were nameless were given Indian names, this name was changed to Mendota, which is the Indian name for junction— meaning meeting, orcoming together. O.N. Adams the name, perhaps from his being the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of LaSalle County, Illinois1877 · page 478Read the page →
Read the text
T. 36, R. 1, constitutes the town of Mendota, It lies in the reme northwest corner of the connty ; has no natural growth of timber, and was entirely ignored by the early settlers, The settlements around the head of Troy Grove timber had extended just over the line into T. 80, in 1840.
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
Mendota, 1853 to 1952
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.
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 Mendota post office opened in 1853, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Mendota rank for history?
Mendota is more historic than 42% of U.S. towns, #456 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 Mendota?
21% of Mendota’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.8 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1964.
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, 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 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.
1933
1933
1933
