Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1942 on, and the census since 1900.
The Pearl City post office opened in 1893, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Yellow Creek (1850), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
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 Pearl City’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Pearl City yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Pearl City is an incorporated village in Stephenson County, Illinois. As of the 2020 census, Pearl City had a population of 790.
Its first post office opened in 1893. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 838 to 790 (-6%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Pearl City, cut from the printed page as they were published.
City are also owners of the horseless carriages, and the whole of the rural districts thereabout present an appearance of thrift, careful attention, and scientific farming. Pearl City is thirteen miles from Freeport, and is accessible from the county seat either by carriage, or by the Chicago Great Western from the South Freeport station.
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.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1960s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Pearl City. 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 Pearl City.
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 Pearl City’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 406 and 838 people in every census since 1900.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Pearl City’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Pearl City itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Pearl City’s post office has been open since 1893. Another post office, Yellow Creek, 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).
The Pearl City post office opened in 1893, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (4), 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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