Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 68% of U.S. towns · #277 of 768 in Illinois. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Union Miners Cemetery. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1912 on, and the census since 1880.
The Mount Olive Township post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 68% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Mount Olive Township is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns, #277 of 768 in Illinois. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls 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 Mount Olive Township’s 6.5 sits above most of its state (78% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% 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 Mount Olive Township’s history is told.
Peaked at 3,503 in 1920; 2,015 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Mount Olive Township’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Mount Olive Township.
On May 20, 2013, a brief but damaging tornado impacted the city, dealing EF2 damage within downtown and minorly injuring three people.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Mount Olive Township. 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 Mount Olive Township.
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 Mount Olive Township’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.
Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.
Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Mount Olive Township post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Mount Olive Township is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns, #277 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.
2 listings: 1 site.
23% of Mount Olive Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.7 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1957.
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 (2), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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