Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 96% of U.S. towns · #21 of 768 in Illinois. What drives it
10 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 62 buildings. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1886 on, and the census since 1850.
Monmouth dates its founding to 1824 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1850.
More historic than 96% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Monmouth is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns, #21 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.
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 Monmouth’s 85.1 sits above most of its state (93% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 73 historic buildings outnumber those of 87% 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.
The 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.
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.
1886Sheet 1 of 3Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Monmouth.
Monmouth was settled in about 1824. The town established in 1831 was originally going to be called Kosciusko (the name was drawn out of a hat), but the founders of the town feared that it would be difficult to spell and pronounce. The name 'Monmouth' was put forward by a resident who had lived in Monmouth County, New Jersey.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Monmouth, cut from the printed page as they were published.
"Ordinance 1st. — Be it ordained by the President and Trustees of the Town of Monmouth, in council convened, that the corporation and jurisdiction of the officers of the Town of Monmouth be one-half mile east, onehalf mile west, one-half mile south and one-half mile north from the center of the Public Square, containing one mile square."
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
These wagon roads have, in a great measure, lost their usefulness, being superceded by railroads, but are yet used as thoroughfares. In December, 1834, a road "was laid out, or " viewed," as it is termed in all the records, from Monmouth to Macomb. The following year, from Monmouth to Knoxville. This same year the law requiring all able-bodied men over twenty-one years of age to work two days on the roads was put in force, and had a salutarv effect on the travellins; facilities. Also, during the summer, the State road from Knoxville through Warren county to New Boston was
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereWyatt Earp is born here
In the archiveSilver print cabinet card of Abraham Lincoln's October 11, 1858 sitting
Born hereRosa Smith Eigenmann is born here
In the archiveBird's eye view of the city of Monmouth, Warren County, Illinois 1869BuiltSarah Martin House is built
In the archiveIllinois, Monmouth. Buggies and wagons at Northeast corner of square
Born hereEllen Diggs is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveMonmouth IL 1st United Presby PHS948
In the archiveHABS ILL,94-MONMO,1- (sheet 0 of 3) - Johnson House, 300 East Archer Avenue
Born hereBlake Schilb is born here5 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Monmouth. 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 Monmouth.
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 Monmouth’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 797 and 11,022 people in every census since 1850.
18 censuses, 1850–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Monmouth’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Monmouth’s post office has been open since 1841.
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.
In 1824, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Monmouth’s post office opened in 1841, and the census of 1850 counted 797 people here.
Monmouth is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns, #21 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.
10 listings: 9 buildings, among them the Sarah Martin House (listed 1980, the first), and 1 historic district, the Monmouth Courthouse Commercial Historic District, with 62 contributing buildings. 73 historic buildings in all.
37% of Monmouth’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.5 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1952.
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 (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (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.
