Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 54% of U.S. towns · #371 of 768 in Illinois. What drives it
Below: maps from 1910 on and the census since 1880.
The Millstadt post office opened in 1843, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 54% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Millstadt is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns, #371 of 768 in Illinois. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
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 Millstadt’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.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Millstadt’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Millstadt. 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 Millstadt.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
From Wikipedia’s history of Millstadt.
In 1874, a German immigrant farm family was killed in a farming hamlet known as Saxtown, just south of the town. It made national headlines and became the subject of the book The Ax Murders of Saxtown.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Millstadt, cut from the printed page as they were published.
that continued to grow until now the German population occupy the territory included in this precinct almost exclusively. There are but seven families of English descent in the congressional township in which the town of Millstadt is situated. They are an industrious, frugal, and energetic people. Thoroughly awake to every improvement which promises additional comfort or added wealth, they sufier no idlers among them, believing that " by the sweat of the brow man should earn his bread." They perpetuate their social
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.
Grew from 1,229 people in 1880 to 4,071 in 2020, 3 times over.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Millstadt’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Millstadt’s post office has been open since 1843.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Millstadt post office opened in 1843, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Millstadt is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns, #371 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.
13% of Millstadt’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.3 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1976.
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 (7), 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.
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